MODERN 
SERMONS 
BY  WORLD 
SCHOLARS 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
AT  LOS  ANGELES 


GIFT   OF   CAPT.  AND   MRS. 
PAUL  MCBRIDE  PERIGORD 


blTY  of  CAUtViiriiM 

AT 
.OS  ANGELS3 


Modern  Sermons  by  World 
Scholars 

VOLUME  I 
ABBOTT  TO  BOSWORTH 


Modern  Sermons 

BY 

World  Scholars 


edited  by 
Robert  Scott  and  William  C.  Stiles 

Editors   of   The  Homilctic  Rcviczc 
INTRODUCTION    BY 

Newell  Dwight  Hillis 

Pastor  of   Plymouth   Church.   Brooklyn 


IN  TEN  VOLUMES 
VOLUME  I— ABBOTT  TO  BOSWORTH 


FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPANY 

NEW   YORK   AND    LONDON 


144615 


Copyright,  1909,  by 

FUNK  &  WAGNALLS  COMPAiTY 

Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


A- 


ai  PREFACE 


jrry  HE  aim  in  preparing  this  work  has  been  to 

'  J^     provide  in  sermonic  form  a  diversified, 

representative  and  scholarly  presentation 

of  the  everlasting  truths  of  the  gospel ;  to  make 

CTc  the  volumes  a  veritable  college  in  the  science 

cv  of  homiletics,  so  far  as  such  a  work  can  meet 

this  function. 

^^-       The  chief  difference  between  this  work  and 

.£'  all   other   volumes    of   sermons   now   in   use, 

(V  vvhether  issued  in  one  or  more  volumes,  is  that 

this  is  the  only  sermonic  work  ever  constructed 

^  along  international,  representative  and  schol- 

^   arly  lines  and  put  into  such  compact  and  con- 

^   venient  form. 

^       The  one  hundred   and   seventeen  sermons 
cs'  in  these  volumes  are  all  by  living  men,  repre- 


O 


senting  different  parts  of  the  world,  as  well 
as  representing  many  different  denominations. 
Most  of  them  have  been  in  the  active  painistry, 
but  are  now  identified  with  seminaries,  col- 
leges, and  universities,  or  hold  official  positions 


PREFACE 


connected  with  their  respective  denominations, 
or  have  editorial  connections. 

These  contributors,  moreover,  are  scholars 
who  stand  among  the  foremost  living  writers 
in  the  field  of  religious  and  theological 
thought.  Their  contributions  to  the  encyclo- 
pedias and  Bible  dictionaries  of  our  time,  their 
text-books  and  their  numerous  contributions 
to  the  best  magazines,  is,  we  think,  sufficient 
guarantee  that  the  sermons  will,  on  the  whole, 
stand  the  test  of  the  most  critical  examination. 

What  the  reader  would  naturally  expect 
from  such  sources  we  believe  he  will  find  in 
these  sermons.  Practically  they  traverse  the 
whole  field  of  sermonic  literature,  presenting 
unusual  variety  and  richness  of  style,  com- 
bined with  depth  and  range  of  thought,  and 
replete  with  a  rich  fund  of  information  and 
inspiration.  Because  of  the  wide  ground 
which  they  cover,  we  are  confident  that  they 
will  become  nothing  less  than  models  for  the 
modern  preacher  and  for  those  who  are  pre- 
paring for  the  ministry.  Professor  Harnack 
says,  ''It  is  very  much  easier  to  produce  six 
brilliant  scientific  treatises  than  to  deliver  or 
write  one  sermon  which  is  timeless."     This 


PREFACE 


timeless  element  belongs  to  these  sermons  and 
gives  them  their  peculiar  worth. 

We  desire  to  express  our  hearty  apprecia- 
tion of  the  uniform  courtesy  and  kindness  of 
the  many  contributors  to  this  work,  without 
whose  generous  cooperation  in  preparing  their 
manuscripts  and  examining  the  proofs  we 
could  not  have  produced  it. 

We  also  desire  to  acknowledge  our  indebted- 
ness to  many  correspondents  who  have  been 
good  enough  to  call  our  attention  to  names  of 
scholars  worthy  of  a  place  in  these  volumes. 

In  accordance  with  more  modern  methods  of 
printing  and  editing,  the  sermons  in  this  col- 
lection have  been,  for  the  most  part,  relieved 
of  numeral  division  marks,  italics  and  similar 
mechanical  devices.  By  this  method  we  have 
secured  approximate  uniformity  in  the  me- 
chanical part  of  the  work. 


INTRODUCTION 


DURING  that  dark  epoch  before  the  Eng- 
lish Revolution  an  English  statesman 
asked  Lord  Bacon  for  a  forecast  of 
events  for  England.  To  which  the  philoso- 
pher replied,  "Tell  me  what  the  young  men 
in  our  universities  are  thinking,  and  I  will 
tell  you  how  events  will  go  for  the  next 
century."  After  reading  these  fascinating 
pages  by  our  most  distinguished  educators, 
authors  and  editors,  we  laid  down  the  vol- 
umes with  the  reflection  that  we  know  what 
the  young  men  in  our  colleges  of  to-day,  who 
are  to  be  the  leaders  of  the  republic  to-mor- 
row, are  thinking  about,  what  high  themes 
are  being  discust  in  lecture  halls  and  chapels, 
what  ideals  are  offered  for  the  home  and 
the  school,  the  market-place  and  the  legisla- 
tive hall,  and  what  principles  are  being  laid 
down,  as  highways  along  which  the  soul,  like 
a  chariot,  may  move  heavenward.  No  task 
to-day    is    more    difficult    than    that    of    the 


INTRODUCTION 


preacher  who  must  go  into  the  pulpit  twice 
each  week,  to  instruct  men,  and  rebuke 
them,  to  inspire,  comfort,  and  regenerate 
them.  The  preacher  must  speak  oftener  than 
the  lawyer,  visit  more  than  the  doctor,  pro- 
duce more  pages  than  the  editor,  teach  with 
the  patience  of  the  professor,  and  therefore 
the  preacher  must  always  be  at  his  best. 

The  standard  of  preaching  also,  in  the 
ministry,  demanded  by  the  pew,  has  been 
exalted.  One  university-bred  man  in  the  pew 
makes  it  necessary  for  the  minister  to  go  up 
to  the  level  of  that  best  man,  for  while  he 
can  not  know  more  about  law  than  the  law- 
yer, or  as  much  about  business  as  the  banker, 
there  is  one  subject  about  which  the  minister 
must  know  more  than  the  wisest  man  in  his 
congregation:  he  must  be  a  master  in  the 
spiritual  realm,  he  must  speak  with  the  note 
of  authority  upon  religion,  he  must  know 
where  are  the  paths  that  lead  to  peace.  The 
minister  fails  unless  he  brings  sight  to 
the  blind,  medicine  to  the  sick,  comfort  to  the 
comfortless,  and  life  to  those  that  are  in  the 
region  and  shadow  of  death.  Little  wonder 
that   Harnack    thinks   the   sermon   the   most 


INTRODUCTION 


difficult  of  all  intellectual  achievements,  and 
that  Ruskin  affirmed  that  the  most  precious 
ha  If -hour  in  all  the  week  was  that  hour  when 
"a  company  of  men  and  women,  breathless 
and  weary  with  the  week's  labor,  have  come 
in  after  six  days'  exposure  to  the  full  weight 
of  the  world's  temptation,  when  the  thorn 
and  the  thistles  have  been  springing  in  the 
heart,  and  the  scattered  wheat  has  been 
snatched  from  the  wayside  by  this  bird  and 
the  other,  and  the  minister  has  but  thirty 
minutes  to  get  at  the  separate  hearts  of  a 
thousand  men,  to  convince  them  of  all  their 
weaknesses,  to  shame  them  for  all  their  sins, 
to  warn  them  of  all  their  dangers,  to  try  by 
this  way  and  that  to  stir  the  hard  fastenings 
of  those  doors,  where  the  Master  Himself  has 
stood  and  knocked,  yet  none  opened,  to  call 
at  the  openings  of  those  dark  streets,  where 
Wisdom  herself  hath  stretched  forth  her 
liaiid  and  no  man  regarded."  Thirty  minutes 
in  which  to  raise  the  dead,  and  these  minutes 
are  laden  with  more  issues  of  happiness,  social 
prosperity  and  peace,  than  all  the  other 
minutes  of  the  week  of  work. 

In  calling  the  roll  of  the  editors,  authors, 


INTRODUCTION 


and  college  professors  it  may  be  doubted  if 
any  such  body  of  homiletic  wisdom  and  knowl- 
edge has  ever  before  been  brought  together 
in  a  single  series.  Most  of  these  authors  have 
been  in  the  active  ministry,  but  are  now  re- 
lated to  colleges  and  universities,  or  have  taken 
up  the  task  of  editor  and  author.  They  are 
therefore  experts  in  their  chosen  realm.  They 
are  artists  and  masters  of  the  homiletic  craft. 
They  teach  the  young  minister  how  to  preach 
by  preaching.  Pointing  to  these  sermons, 
the  publishers  can  say,  "These  are  the  fruits 
grown  in  the  homiletic  garden  of  the  repub- 
lic." These  sermons  have  been  preached 
before  national  assemblies,  educational  gather- 
ings, have  been  heard  by  college  students  and 
scientific  bodies.  We  are  interested  in  the 
sword  with  which  the  hero  won  his  victory, 
and  in  the  sermon  with  which  a  scholar  has 
lifted  and  refreshed  a  thousand  weary  men. 
The  thoughtful  man  who  lingers  long  over 
these  pages  will  be  stirred  to  pride  by  the 
quality  of  thinking  that  is  now  presented  in 
sermons  in  our  colleges,  seminaries  and  uni- 
versities. Verily,  the  students  that  listen  to 
these  teachers  dwell  midst  perpetual  summer. 


INTRODUCTION 


That  which  impresses  the  reader  in  going 
over  these  pages  is  the  new  scientific  spirit 
that  has  entered  the  seminary  hall  and  the 
college  chapel.  Evidently,  our  leading  schol- 
ars are  making  more  of  the  scientific  method 
in  religion,  and  using  experiment  and  obser- 
vation as  tests  of  truth,  not  less  than  the  old 
standards  of  instinct  and  intuition.  College 
men  want  the  facts  in  the  case.  Our  educa- 
tors are  making  a  first-hand  statement  of 
nature  and  life.  Dealing  with  the  simplici- 
ties, these  scholars  have  presented  the  great 
realities  of  the  human  soul  made  in  the  image 
of  God.  No  greater  themes  than  these  can  ever 
engage  the  attention  of  the  intellect.  Is  there 
a  God  who  dwells  behind  the  stars  ?  Is  there  a 
Providence  that  cares  for  man?  What  is 
the  ground  of  duty?  What  is  virtue?  Can 
a  perfect  God  permit  evil?  Is  the  Di- 
vine Being  justified  in  ever  forgiving  sin 
in  a  world  of  law  and  justice?  Can  a  bad 
man  ever  return  to  the  hour  when  the  heart 
was  young?  Is  there  any  place  for  prayer 
in  a  world  of  law?  Does  man  represent  life 
or  mechanism?  Does  death  end  all?  Are 
our  rich   men  to  bring  about   a  revival   of 


INTRODUCTION 


paganism?  Can  Christianity  conquer  the 
slums  at  one  extreme,  and  the  palaces  of 
luxury  at  the  other?  What  is  to  become  of 
the  republic  if  the  Sunday,  the  soul's  library 
day,  is  overthrown?  It  is  good  to  have  the 
fundamental  principles  underlying  these  ques- 
tions stated  by  scholars  who  have  gone  to  the 
bottom  of  things,  enforced  by  the  experience 
and  culture  of  authors  and  editors,  who  have 
traveled  widely,  observed  carefully,  and  tested 
their  thinking  in  the  school  of  experience. 

A  review  of  these  pages  also  indicates  that 
so  far  from  our  great  educators  dwelling 
aloof  from  the  interests  of  the  market- 
place and  the  street,  they  are  becoming  in- 
creasingly interested  in  the  social  problems, 
and  are  more  closely  knitted  into  the  texture 
of  their  time.  Indeed,  these  sermons  are 
notable  for  their  straightforward  speech, 
their  practical  application  to  daily  affairs, 
and  the  interest  of  their  authors  in  the  world 
of  to-day.  Without  losing  their  interest  in 
the  background  of  history,  or  neglecting  the 
message  of  the  prophets  and  the  apostles, 
more  and  more  our  scholars  are  giving  them- 
selves to  the  big  practical  events  of  the  world 


INTRODUCTION 


about  them.  The  time  has  gone  forever  when 
educated  men  can  sit  in  the  study  and  dream 
their  dreams,  and  see  their  visions,  while  the 
pilgrim  host  is  out  in  the  darkness  and  storm, 
blundering  and  stumbling,  sinning  and  curs- 
ing, repenting  and  dying,  without  physician, 
without  shepherd  or  leader.  The  scholar's 
place  is  at  the  head  of  the  pilgrim  host.  The 
sage  may  feed  his  lamp  in  solitude,  but  when 
the  blaze  flames  brightly  he  must  carry  it 
into  the  night,  to  lead  his  little  band  of  pil- 
grims through  the  storm,  to  the  distant  home. 
Medicine  must  be  taken  to  the  sick,  leaven 
must  be  cast  into  the  meal,  and  culture  must 
lead.  For  the  doing  that  makes  commerce  is 
born  of  the  thinking  that  makes  scholars.  All 
the  flying  of  looms  and  the  whirling  of 
the  spindles  begins  with  the  thought  of  some 
scholar  hidden  in  his  closet,  or  musing  in 
some  cloister.  The  test  of  our  colleges  and 
schools  is  the  kind  of  leaders  they  are  raising 
up.  Plainly  the  interests  of  the  mother  land 
and  of  this  republic  are  safe  in  the  hands 
of  men  who  are  lifting  up  these  ideals, 
urging  such  considerations  of  individual 
worth   and    Christian   manhood   as   are   pre- 


INTRODUCTION 


sen  ted  in  these  pages.  The  busy  pastor,  the 
theological  student,  the  man  of  affairs,  who 
would  fain  carry  away  not  the  gleaner's 
handful,  but  ripe  sheaves,  will  find  these  ten 
volumes  a  treasury  of  learning,  a  storehouse 
of  information,  an  armory  full  of  weapons 
for  to-morrow's  battles,  a  library  stored  with 
wisdom  for  to-morrow's  emergencies. 


Brooklyn,  New  York, 
November  29,  1909. 


CONTENTS 


VOLUME  I 

PAGE 

The  Secret  of  Character — Abbott  ...  1 

Truth  in  Jesus — Adeney 19 

Strength  from  the  Invisible — Beckwith   .  39 

Bartim^us — Beecher 55 

The  Inspired  Word — Bennett 71 

The  Fact_,  Eternity  and  Character  of  God 

—Benton 89 

The  Power  and  Glory  of  Christ  as  the 

Revelation  of  God — Bevan 113 

The  Attraction  of  the  Present — Black  .  129 
Goodness  Found  Unprofitable — Bland  .  .  Ill 
The  Imperative  Claims  of  Christ  upon  His 

Followers — Blomfield 155 

Paul's  Message  to  the  Athenians — Bonney  171 
The  Meaning  of  Life — Bosworth  ....  193 


ABBOTT 
THE  SECRET  OF  CHARACTER 


I— 1 


LYMAN  ABBOTT 

Editor  of  The  Outlook;  born  Roxbury, 
Mass.,  December  18,  1835;  graduated 
from  the  University  of  New  York,  1853; 
practised  law,  and  is  now  a  member 
of  the  New  York  State  bar;  ordained 
a  Congi'egational  minister  in  186Q; 
pastor  in  Terre  Haute,  Ind.,  1860-65; 
New  England  church,  New  York,  1865- 
69;  resigned  the  pastorate  in  1869  to  en- 
gage in  literature ;  edited  ^ '  Literary  Rec- 
ord" of  Harper's  Magazine;  associate 
editor  of  The  Christian  Union  with 
Henry  Ward  Beecher,  whom  he  suc- 
ceeded as  pastor  of  Plymouth  church, 
Brooklyn,  May,  1888;  resigned  Novem- 
ber, 1898 ;  D.D.  universities  of  New  York 
and  Harvard,  and  LL.D.  Western  Re- 
serve University;  author  of  '^ Jesus  of 
Nazareth,"  ''Old  Testament  Shadows  of 
New  Testament  Truths,"  ''The  Lay- 
man's Story,"  "How  to  Study  the 
Bible,"  "Illustrated  Commentary  on  the 
New  Testament,"  "Dictionary  of  Re- 
ligious Knowledge,"  "Study  in  Human 
Nature,"  "In  Aid  of  Faith,"  "Life  of 
Christ,"  "Evolution  of  Christianity," 
etc. 


THE  SECRET  OF  CHARACTER 

Lyman  Abbott,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

'*  Which  were  torn,  not  of  Mood,  nor  of  the  will 
of  the  flesh,  nor  of  the  will  of  man,  but  of  God." — 
John  1  :  13. 

IN  these  words  John  deals  with  the  sources 
of  character.  "Christ,"  he  says,  "came 
unto  his  own,  and  his  own  received  him 
not.  But  as  many  as  received  him,  to  them 
gave  he  power  to  become  the  sons  of  God, 
even  to  them  that  believe  on  his  name. ' '  Four 
sources  or  springs  of  character,  four  grounds 
of  expectation  of  human  development,  are 
put  here  in  contrast. 

True  character  is  not  born  of  blood.  It 
does  not  depend  upon  inheritance.  Men  are 
neither  great  nor  good  merely  because  they 
have  a  great  and  good  ancestry.  The  value 
of  a  nation  does  not  depend,  fundamentally 
and  finally,  on  its  past  history,  nor  on  a  race. 
History  Abundantly  demonstrates  that. 
When  John  wrote  these  words  the  Jews  prided 
themselves  on  being  children  of  Abraham. 
They  were  born  of  good  blood — and  that  was 
enough.  And  nobody  could  compete  with 
them  in  character  or  in  the  race  for  accept- 
ance with  God,  because  they  were  born  of 
Abraham.  "We  be  children  of  Abraham," 
said  the  Jews  to  Christ.     This  was  enough. 


MODERN     SERMONS 


At  the  time  these  words  were  written  there 
were  other  men  who  said :  *  *  We  be  Komans. ' ' 
That  was  enough.  ^ '  I  am  a  Roman, ' '  was  the 
proud  boast  and  the  adequate  boast.  There  was 
nothing  more  to  be  said.  This  was  the  final, 
the  complete  claim.  And  yet  the  Jewish  na- 
tion has  disappeared  as  a  nation,  dispersed 
among  all  races.  And  the  Roman  nation  has 
disappeared,  broken  down,  tho  out  of  its  roots 
has  grown  a  new  race — a  new  nation.  The 
Englishman  is  proud  of  being  an  English- 
man. That  is  enough.  The  Englishman's  na- 
tional and  personal  pride  are  the  subjects  of 
numerous  jests,  and  the  satires,  often  origi- 
nating with  one  of  his  own  people,  are  sig- 
nificant of  a  real  sentiment  among  our  in- 
sular brethren.  And  we  laugh  at  it.  We  do 
not  think  it  is  enough  to  be  a  Jew,  or  enough 
to  have  been  a  Roman,  or  enough  to  have 
been  an  Englishman.  But  I  wonder  if  there 
are  not  some  of  us  who  think  it  is  enough  to 
be  an  American.  The  same  pride  of  race  crosses 
the  ocean  and  crosses  the  centuries,  and  you 
hear  it  here  to-day — ''the  American  idea," 
"the  American  civilization,"  ''the  American 
church,"  "the  American  religion,"  "the 
American  education,"  "the  American  de- 
mocracy"— put  the  stamp  "American"  on 
anything  and  it  is  all  right.  No  higher  praise 
to  be  given  anything  than  that  it  is  American ; 
no  stronger  condemnation  of  anything  than 
that  it  is  un-American.     Now,   too,  we  are 


ABBOTT 


beginning  to  trace  our  lineage  back.  We  are 
sons  of  the  Puritans.  We  are  sons  of  the 
Revolution.  We  are  sons  of  the  Mayflower. 
And  some  of  us  are  getting  across  the  ocean 
and  trying  to  find  ourselves  as  sons  of  fami- 
lies back  of  the  Mayflower. 

John  says  character  does  not  depend  on 
inheritance.  Inheritance  is  valuable;  it  has 
its  place ;  but  it  is  not  the  foundation  of  char- 
acter. A  man  may  be  a  child  of  Abraham 
and  be  degenerate;  he  may  be  a  Roman,  and 
be  base:  he  may  be  an  Anglo-Saxon  and  be 
mean;  he  may  be  an  Englishman  and  be 
vicious;  and  he  may  even  be  an  American 
and  go  to  pieces.  Not  only  that — the  whole 
race  of  Jews,  and  the  whole  race  of  Romans, 
and  the  whole  race  of  Englishmen,  and  the 
whole  race  of  Americans  may  go  to  pieces,  if 
all  that  they  depend  upon  is  that  they  are 
born  of  good  blood. 

Good  blood  does  not  make  character,  and 
bad  blood  does  not  destroy  it.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  conversation  I  had  some  years  ago 
with  one  of  the  best  experts  in  insanity  in 
this  country.  He  said  to  me — and  the  decla- 
ration startled  me — ''Insanity  is  never  in- 
herited." And  when  I  exprest  my  surprize, 
he  repeated  this  affirmation:  "Insanity  is 
never  inherited."  And  I  said:  "What  is  in- 
herited?" He  replied,  "A  man  may  inherit 
such  weakness  that  he  will  be  liable  to  in- 
sanity.    But  when  a  man  comes  to  me  and 


MODERN     SERMONS 


says:  'My  father  was  insane  and  my  grand- 
father was  insane,  and  I  am  afraid  I  am  going 
to  be  insane,'  I  say  to  him:  'My  dear  sir, 
you  are  the  man  that  ought  not  to  be  in- 
sane, for  you  have  a  warning;  you  know 
against  what  you  need  to  guard;  you  know 
how  you  need  to  guard  yourself.'  The  man 
whose  father  and  mother  and  grandfather  and 
grandmother  were  insane  is  just  the  man  that 
ought  not  to  go  insane,  for  he  knows  w^hat  are 
his  weaknesses,  and  he  knows  hbw  to  guard 
himself  against  them.  No  man  ever  inherits 
insanity. ' ' 

No  man  ever  inherited  sin.  There  is  not 
any  original  sin.  Men  inherit  appetites  and 
passions,  they  inherit  temptations,  they  in- 
herit weaknesses  and  frailties  and  infirmities, 
but  they  do  not  inherit  sin  and  they  do  not 
inherit  virtue.  Virtue  can  not  be  handed 
down  from  father  to  son.  Character  can  not 
be  so  wrought  that  it  may  be  easier  for  your 
son  to  keep  from  falling  into  sin.  Weakness 
may  be  handed  down,  so  that  it  will  be  easier 
for  your  son  to  fall  into  sin,  but  virtue  is 
victory  by  the  individual  himself  over  temp- 
tation that  assails  himself,  and  the  victory 
can  not  be  won  by  another  and  the  defeat 
can  not  be  suffered  by  another.  Men  are 
neither  born  sinners  nor  born  saints.  Char- 
acter does  not  depend  on  blood. 

It  does  not  depend  on  the  will  of  the  flesh. 
Flesh,  as  that  term  is  used  in  the  New  Testa- 


ABBOTT 


ment,  especially  by  Paul,  means  the  animal 
man.  Character  does  not  depend  upon  a 
strong,  virile,  vigorous,  stalwart  will  in  the 
man  himself.  The  value  of  government  does 
not  depend  on  strong  will,  by  a  king,  by  an 
aristocracy,  nor  yet  by  a  democracy.  There 
was  a  strong  government  in  Rome,  and  Rome 
went  to  pieces.  There  was  a  strong  govern- 
ment in  France,  and  that  went  to  pieces. 
Strength  of  will  in  an  enthroned  power  ex- 
erting itself  over  the  community,  does  not 
make  a  strong,  safe,  permanent,  enduring  gov- 
ernment. De  Tocqueville  said:  "The  peril 
to  America  is  in  the  great  cities,  and  unless 
America  has  an  armed  force,  independent  of 
the  cities,  by  which  it  can  keep  order  in  the 
cities,  I  foresee  the  destruction  of  the  Amer- 
ican republic  from  municipal  populations.'* 
A  strong  military  force,  independent  of  the 
cities,  ruled  by  the  State  or  ruled  by  the  na- 
tion, and  exercising  authority  over  the  cities, 
will  not  prevent  the  destruction  of  the  na- 
tion from  foreign  and  disorderly  populations 
in  the  cities.  Build  your  buildings  for  the 
soldiery  as  large  as  you  please,  make  them 
strong,  make  the  windows  as  narrow,  fill  them 
with  soldiers  as  well  trained,  all  that  may  be 
necessary  for  protection  from  imminent  and 
impending  peril,  but  that  will  not  save  the 
nation.  No  nation  ever  yet  was  saved  by  a 
bayonet.  No  nation  ever  will  be  saved  by  a 
bayonet.     No   military   force   can   protect   a 


MODERN    SERMONS 


nation  permanently  from  the  disorder  and 
disaster  of  anarchy.  The  remedy  must  go 
down  deeper.  A  strong  will  and  a  strong  man 
to  exercise  the  strong  will  can  not  make  a 
nation  safe. 

It  will  not  make  the  home  safe.  There  are 
plenty  of  fathers  who  think  that  the  family 
will  be  safe  if  they  only  govern  their  child 
well.  ''Govern  a  child  in  the  way  he  should 
go,"  is  the  way  they  read  the  passage,  ''and 
when  he  is  old  he  will  not  depart  from  it"; 
and  they  do  govern  him  in  the  way  he  should 
go,  but  he  does  depart  from  it.  It  has  been 
the  common  experience  of  families  over  and 
over  again.  I  do  not  say  that  children  should 
not  be  governed,  but  unless  the  father  can  do 
something  else  than  govern  the  child,  he  is  a 
failure.  It  is  not  enough  to  keep  the  boy  off 
the  street;  you  must  make  him  wish  to  stay 
off  the  street.  It  is  not  enough  to  keep  him 
in  school;  you  must  make  him  want  the 
school.  It  is  not  enough  to  prevent  him  from 
smoking  or  drinking;  you  must  make  him 
hate  self-indulgence  and  sensuality.  You 
must  make  the  life  and  the  power  within  work 
out.  You  can  not  save  him  by  anything  that 
is  from  without  working  inward.  You  can 
not  do  this  in  the  nation;  you  can  not  in  the 
family. 

These  two  processes — power  working  from 
without  in  restraint,  power  working  from 
within  developing — were  set  in  marked  con- 


ABBOTT 


trast  in  the  last  century.  France  was  threat- 
ened by  revolution,  and  England  was  threat- 
ened by  revolution.  The  same  forces  exactly 
were  boiling  in  England  as  in  France,  and 
France  had  a  standing  army  and  a  Bourbon 
king  and  a  military  power,  and  France  ex- 
ploded. England  had  no  such  military  force 
to  overawe  its  own  population,  but  it  had  a 
Protestant  Church,  and  it  had  the  Wesleyan 
movement,  and  it  had  a  great  educational 
movement  going  on  within  its  boundaries, 
and  England  developed  out  of  the  very  Chart- 
ist elements  a  larger  and  a  better  and  a  nobler 
life.  We  did  not  restore  the  Union  when  Lee 
surrendered  at  Appomattox  Court-house,  we 
only  got  a  chance  to  restore  the  Union.  If, 
after  that  surrender.  South  Carolina  and 
Georgia  and  Alabama  and  Mississippi  had 
still  held  their  old  grudge  against  the  North, 
if  no  free  schools  had  been  built  up,  if  no 
commerce  had  prest  in,  if  no  manufacturing 
had  followed,  if  there  had  been  no  rebanding 
together,  man  with  man,  if  we  had  followed 
the  Civil  War  with  executions  and  kept  the 
bad  blood  in  our  veins,  we  should  have  had  a 
dissevered  nation,  altho  one  flag  had  floated 
over  us.  You  can  not  make  a  nation  one 
with  a  cordon  of  forts  and  an  armed  band. 
Appomattox  Court-house  gave  us  the  chance; 
but  it  was  the  school,  the  missionary,  the 
merchant,  the  manufacturer,  the  traveling 
agent,  the   salesman,   the  whole  life   of   the 


MODERN    SERMONS 


North  poured  out  into  the  South,  that  knit 
together  the  dissevered  Union  and  made  the 
nation  one. 

What  is  true  of  the  nation  and  of  the 
family  is  true  of  the  individual.  The  strength 
and  the  hope  of  the  individual  is  not  in  a 
strong,  stalwart  will.  It  is  a  good  thing  to 
have  a  strong  will.  Wo  to  the  father  who 
says :  * '  I  will  break  the  will  of  my  boy. ' '  He 
had  better  break  his  back.  A  boy  without 
will  would  better  die  than  live.  But,  never- 
theless, no  man  is  saved,  to  use  the  theological 
phrase,  no  man  is  made  a  man,  large,  strong, 
rich,  full,  splendid,  by  the  possession  of  a 
strong  will.  He  may  be  kept  from  certain 
forms  of  vice  and  iniquity,  but  that  does  not 
make  a  man.  A  strong  will  is  like  the  armor 
that  soldiers  used  to  wear  in  the  olden  times. 
If  he  only  went  into  battle  with  the  armor 
on,  he  might  not  get  killed,  but  he  would  do 
nothing.  He  must  have  a  strong  arm  as  well 
as  a  strong  armor.  A  man  with  a  strong  will 
may  be  a  righteous  man,  but  he  will  not  be, 
therefore,  a  good  man.  A  man  with  a  strong 
will,  and  nothing  else,  may  be  a  conscientious 
man,  but  he  will  not  be  a  holy  man;  he  will 
not  carry  with  him  the  pervasive,  sunny, 
brooding,  inspiring  influence  which  comes 
from  the  fountains  of  life  which  spring  up 
within  the  soul  itself. 

The  hope  of  society  and  the  hope  of  the 
individual  is  not  in  being  born  of  blood  (that 

10 


ABBOTT 


is,  good  inheritance),  nor  being  born  of  the 
will  of  the  flesh  (that  is,  strong  will),  so, 
neither  is  it  in  being  born  of  what  John  calls 
the  will  of  man.  The  will  of  the  flesh  is  man 
simply  as  an  animal,  strong,  vigorous,  deter- 
mined, resolute.  But  man  is  higher  than 
that;  he  is  a  domestic  man,  he  is  a  cultivated 
man,  an  educated  man;  and  the  modern 
equivalent  of  this  phrase,  "will  of  man,'^ 
would  be  perhaps  education.  John  says,  the 
world  can  not  be  saved  by  inheritance,  the 
world  can  not  be  saved  by  strength  of  char- 
acter, the  world  can  not  be  saved  by  educa- 
tion. 

That  is  the  modern  panacea.  Go  to,  we 
will  have  an  educated  people!  Then  it  will 
be  all  right.  It  is  foolish  to  do  wrong.  There- 
fore we  will  make  men  rational,  and  then 
they  will  cease  doing  wrong.  We  have  bor- 
rowed that  philosophy  from  ancient  times  and 
imported  and  incorporated  it  here,  and  now 
not  a  few  say  we  can  get  along  without 
churches,  without  Bible,  without  worship, 
without  religion,  without  higher  institutions, 
because  have  we  not  the  public  schools  and 
(heaven  save  the  mark!)  the  public  press? 
Teach  men  to  read  and  write,  then  they  will 
be  saved.  Educate  them;  they  will  see  it  is 
folly  to  do  wrong,  and  they  will  cease  doing 
wrong.  That  is  the  argument.  Does  it  suc- 
ceed? Huxley  (I  do  not  quote  his  words) 
says  that  the  serpent  was  the  subtlest  of  the 

11 


MODERN    SERMONS 


beasts  of  the  field,  and  we  all  know  what  came 
of  that  experiment  at  the  beginning  of  the 
race.  Education  is  not  a  panacea.  Equip  a 
man  with  all  the  powers  with  which  education 
can  equip  him,  and  you  simply  give  him  power 
with  which  he  can  carry  on  selfishness  more 
skilfully  and  more  efficiently  than  before.  It 
will  put  an  end  to  certain  forms  of  sin  and 
put  others  in  their  place.  The  educated  man 
will  not  pick  your  pocket,  he  will  only  forge 
your  name ;  he  will  not  steal,  he  will  only  de- 
falcate. He  has  learned  how  to  do  his  rob- 
bery, his  stealing,  his  sin  on  a  larger  scale, 
and  with  somewhat  less  chance  of  detection. 
"Teach  this  American  people  to  read,  and  all 
will  go  well  with  it."  Well,  we  do  read,  we 
do  write.  And  what  is  it  that  we  read  and 
write  ?  Take  an  instance :  A  horrible  murder 
was  discovered,  and  the  headless  trunk  was 
found  floating  in  the  river.  One  of  our  mod- 
ern journals  made  a  picture  of  the  place  and 
a  picture  of  the  crowd  looking  on,  and  a  pic- 
ture of  the  trunk,  with  all  the  marks  to  show 
where  the  head  was  taken  off  and  what  limbs 
were  gone.  Another  journal  interviewed  one 
who  had  committed  a  horrible  murder  only  a 
few  months  before,  and  had  decapitated  the 
victim  and  had  carried  the  trunk  off  in  one 
quarter  and  the  head  in  another — interviewed 
him  to  get  his  expert  judgment  as  a  murderer 
on  the  question  how  this  newer  murder  was 
committed;    and    the    expert    murderer    was 

12 


ABBOTT 


proud  of  the  interview  that  had  been  ac- 
corded him.  And  this  is  what  we  are  getting 
by  the  simple  ability  to  read  and  write,  with- 
out the  moral  ability  to  discriminate  what  we 
read  and  what  we  write.  We  have  a  little 
discrimination.  It  is  mostly  apparent  in  our 
wives  and  our  mothers.  They  will  not  have 
these  journals  in  the  house.  So  out  of  respect 
for  them,  we  do  not  subscribe  for  them;  but 
as  soon  as  we  go  out  of  the  house,  we  buy 
them  of  the  newsboys  and  read  them  on  the 
trains.  There  ought  to  be  such  a  public  sen- 
timent in  America,  and  it  ought  to  go  forth 
from  the  Christian  churches,  that  a  man 
would  count  himself  disgraced  if  there  was 
seen  in  his  hand  some  papers  which  I  will 
not  mention,  because  I  do  not  care  to  advertise 
them.  Can  you  not  see  whither  we  are  go- 
ing? Can  you  not  see  the  tendency  of  this 
vile  journalism  ?  I  do  not  say  we  shall  reach 
the  result  (God  grant  that  we  do  not!),  but 
can  not  you  see  what  it  means?  First,  we 
have  yellow-covered  stories  that  tell  all  awful 
horrors.  When  there  has  been  educated  a 
constituency  by  that  literature  and  the  boys 
and  girls  have  grown  to  men  and  women, 
there  grows  up  a  press  that  elaborates  with 
great  exaggeration  all  suicides,  murders,  and 
horrible  crimes.  Now  we  are  feeding  on 
those.  Do  you  know  what  comes  next  ?  When 
Rome  was  no  longer  satisfied  with  mimic 
shows  of  horror,  she  made  real  ones.     When 

13 


MODERN     SERMONS 


she  was  no  longer  sufficiently  satisfied  with 
the  tragic  stories,  she  made  actual  tragedies — 
flung  over  men  to  wild  beasts  in  spectacular 
shows  that  she  might  rejoice  in  their  agonies. 
That  is  the  way  in  which  we  are  walking. 
You  can  not  feed  children  on  yellow-covered 
stories  without  raising  men  and  women  that 
want  yellow  newspapers;  and  you  can  not 
feed  men  and  women  on  yellow  newspapers 
without  kindling  a  passion  that  will  want 
tragedy  in  actual  life,  and  will  make  it  when 
it  does  not  come  itself. 

The  hope  of  the  world  is  not  in  inheritance, 
not  in  government,  not  in  education ;  it  is  in 
God.  Do  you  know  what  the  duty  of  a  min- 
ister is?  It  is  to  say  the  same  thing  Sunday 
after  Sunday,  and  trying  so  to  say  it  that 
people  will  listen  to  him  and  forget  that  it  is 
an  old  story  while  he  is  saying  it.  The  hope 
of  America,  your  hope,  my  hope,  is  not  in 
inheritance — Sons  of  the  Revolution,  Daugh- 
ters of  the  Revolution,  Sons  of  the  Mayflower, 
Daughters  of  the  Mayflower,  Sons  of  the 
Puritans,  or  in  any  such  thing.  It  is  not  in 
strong  government,  in  politics,  or  in  family, 
or  in  vigorous  self-will.  It  is  not  in  public 
schools,  unless  the  public  school  learns  how 
to  educate  the  conscience  as  well  as  the  in- 
tellect. It  is  in  God,  who  may  use  all  these, 
and  through  all  these  may  speak  to  the 
souls  of  His  children.  There  is  no  more  hope 
of    an    Anglo-Saxon    race    than    of    a  Latin 

14 


ABBOTT 


race,  unless  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  gets  nearer 
to  God.  There  is  no  more  hope  for  an  Amer- 
ican people  than  for  a  Eoman  people,  unless 
the  American  people  understand  God  better 
than  the  Romans  did.  There  is  no  more  hope 
for  a  strong  government  than  for  a  weak  gov- 
ernment, unless  we  understand  that  God  is 
the  great  Governor  and  all  sanction  of  law 
comes  from  His  authority.  There  is  no  more 
hope  in  an  educated  people  than  in  an  ignor- 
ant people,  unless  their  education  has  taught 
them  right  and  wrong,  and  God,  as  the  inter- 
preter of  right  and  wrong,  and  God's  own 
nature  as  the  reservoir  of  all  righteousness 
from  which  all  life  and  hatred  of  wrong  must 
come  forth. 

Two  men  sit  side  by  side — in  this  very  con- 
gregation perhaps.  One  looks  back  through  a 
long  line  of  ancestry,  father,  grandfather, 
great-grandfather,  running  back  across  the 
sea  to  splendid  progenitors  in  England.  My 
friend,  the  greatness  and  goodness  of  your 
father  will  not  make  you  great  nor  good. 
Many  a  great  man  has  had  a  little  son,  and 
many  a  noble  man  has  had  an  ignoble  son. 
By  his  side  sits  another,  a  child  without 
genealogy.  He  knows  not  where  his  father 
or  his  mother  came  from,  nor  ami:hing  of  his 
parentage  or  his  birth.  My  friend,  you  need 
not  despair  of  life.  Who  knows  who  was  the 
father  or  the  mother  of  Moses  that  became 
statesman  of  Israel?    Who  knows  to-day  the 

15 


MODERN     SERMONS 


genealogy  of  Paul,  the  greatest  philosopher 
of  all  time,  unless  Plato  be  an  exception? 
Rise  up,  take  God  for  your  Father  and  in 
Him  have  an  inheritance  that  runs  beyond  all 
human  inheritance.  Two  other  men  sit  side 
by  side.  One  strong  of  will.  **I  fear  noth- 
ing," he  says.  ''I  smoke  to-day,  I  can  cast 
away  my  cigar  to-morrow.  I  drink  to-day,  I 
can  give  up  drinking  to-morrow.  I  fear  noth- 
ing; I  can  walk  in  life;  I  am  strong."  Per- 
haps you  are;  I  do  not  know.  Being  strong 
may  protect  you;  but  it  will  not  make  you  a 
friend,  a  sympathizer,  a  helper  of  another; 
you  must  have  something  deeper  and  stronger 
and  better  than  a  selfish  life  for  that.  By 
his  side  sits  another  weak  man.  He  has  re- 
solved again  and  again.  Again  and  again  he 
has  broken  his  resolution.  His  whole  life  is 
strewed  with  broken  resolutions.  My  friends, 
life  does  not  depend  on  a  strong  will;  it  de- 
pends on  a  divinely  reenforced  will,  and  you 
can  have  God  for  the  asking.  Side  by  side  sit 
two  other  men.  One  has  had  his  school,  his 
college  and  his  university  education,  and  his 
post-graduate  course,  and  has  gone  abroad, 
and  knows  two  or  three  languages.  And  he  is 
equipped.  Yes,  equipped !  But  what  are  you 
going  to  do  with  your  equipment?  That  is 
to  be  answered  by  your  moral  and  spiritual 
nature,  and  the  larger  your  equipment,  the 
worse  your  life,  if  you  do  not  know  how  to 
use  that  which  you  possess.    And  by  his  side 

16 


ABBOTT 


sits  another  man  who  can  scarcely  write  at 
all  and  stumbles  in  his  reading.  There  is  one 
text  for  you  both:  Knowledge  shall  vanish 
away ;  but  faith,  hope  and  love  abide  forever. 
You  are  measured,  not  by  your  learning,  but 
by  the  use  you  make  of  it.  The  most  influ- 
ential man  of  all  time — think  what  you  may 
of  His  divinity — Jesus  of  Nazareth,  was  never 
at  a  university  but  one  day  in  his  life,  and 
had  no  other  schooling  than  such  as  was  fur- 
nished him  by  the  synagog  school  at  Naza- 
reth. 

Character  is  not  due  to  inheritance,  will- 
power, culture;  it  is  due  to  the  life  of  God, 
wrought  by  His  peace  in  the  soul  of  man. 
Born,  not  of  blood — inheritance;  not  of  the 
will  of  the  flesh — government ;  not  of  the  will 
of  man — education;  but  of  the  God  who  is 
brooding  the  race,  of  the  God  who  has  come 
into  the  life  of  Christ,  of  the  God  who  stands 
at  the  door  of  your  heart  and  your  life,  say- 
ing: ''Let  me  come  into  vou  and  make  you  a 
child  of  God." 


.  1-2  17 


ADENEY 
TRUTH  IN  JESUS 


19 


W.  F.  ADENEY 

Principal  of  Lancashire  Independent 
College  since  1903;  born  Ealing,  Mid- 
dlesex, England;  educated  New  College, 
London;  seventeen  years  Congregational 
minister  at  Acton;  fourteen  years  pro- 
fessor of  New  Testament  exegesis  and 
Church  history  at  Hackney  College,  Lon- 
don; lecturer  in  history  of  doctrine  at 
the  University  of  Manchester;  editor  of 
the  ''Century  Bible";  D.D.  from  St. 
Andrew's,  Scotland;  author  of  ''The  He- 
brew Utopia,''  "From  Christ  to  Con- 
stantine,"  "FromConstantine  to  Charles 
the  Great,"  "Theolog>^  of  the  New  Tes- 
tament" (which  has  been  translated 
into  Japanese),  "Ezra,  Nehemiah  and 
Esther,"  "Canticles  and  Lamentations" 
(Expositor's  Bible),  "Women  of  the 
New  Testament,"  "How  to  Read  the 
Bible,"  "A  Century's  Progi^ess,"  "St. 
Luke  and  Galatians  and  Thessalonians" 
(Century  Bible),  etc. 


20 


TRUTH  IN  JESUS 
The  Rev.  Prin.  "Walter  F.  Adeney,  M.A. 
*'As  truth  is  in  Jesus." — Eph.  4  :  21. 

WE  hear  this  phrase  very  frequently 
quoted,  but  too  often  in  ways  that 
miss  the  pith  and  point  of  it.  Some- 
times it  is  used  quite  indefinitely,  for  the 
whole  realm  of  Christian  doctrine;  and  some- 
times it  is  applied  in  a  peculiar  manner  to  a 
singularly  constricted  scheme  of  ideas  to 
which  its  admirers  confine  that  great  word 
*' gospel."  Both  of  these  usages  show  a  fail- 
ure to  catch  the  original  tone  of  the  phrase. 

This  should  be  suggested  to  us  by  the  sim- 
plicity of  the  name  of  our  Lord.  It  is  just 
"Jesus" — the  bare  personal  name,  shorn  of 
all  titles  and  honors,  of  all  reference  to  His 
kingship  and  divine  nature.  That  is  quite 
unusual  in  the  epistles — most  unusual  with 
Paul.  In  the  epistles — especially  in  Paul's 
Epistles — we  nearly  always  have  some  such 
expression  as  "Jesus  Christ,"  "Christ  Jesus," 
"Christ"  alone,  "the  Lord,"  "the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ. ' '  But  when  we  go  back  to  the  gospels 
we  come  upon  the  simple  name  "Jesus."  In 
a  word,  that  is  the  name  our  Lord  bears  in 
the  gospels,  while  "Christ"  is  specifically  His 
name  in  the  epistles. 

21 


MODERN     SERMONS 


Now  this  is  not  merely  a  question  of  words. 
''Jesus"  was  our  Lord's  personal  name,  the 
name  by  which  He  was  known  in  His  boyhood 
and  obscurity  at  Nazareth,  before  any 
dreamed  who  He  was,  and  what  He  was  to 
become;  it  was  the  name  by  which  He  was 
known  to  the  end  by  those  people  who  re- 
jected His  high  claims. 

Why,  then,  does  Paul  here  strip  the  name 
of  the  titles  of  honor  and  reverence  which  the 
disciples  had  learned  to  attach  to  it?  If  we 
examine  a  few  of  their  passages  in  the  epis- 
tles where  this  is  done,  we  shall  see  that  they 
all  point  in  one  and  the  same  direction.  They 
all  call  our  attention  to  the  earthly  life  of 
our  Lord,  to  that  life  which  we  have  in  the 
gospel  story. 

Truth  in  Jesus,  then,  is  truth  in  the  life 
of  Jesus  on  earth ;  to  us  it  is  truth  contained 
and  revealed  in  the  gospel  story. 

But,  you  will  ask,  why,  then,  was  this  not 
stated  more  clearly?  Why  do  we  not  read 
"the  truth  which  Jesus  taught?"  Because, 
there  is  a  closer  relation  between  Jesus  and 
truth  than  there  is  between  the  mere  teacher 
and  his  lesson.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  I  sup- 
pose nobody  can  teach  well  any  truth  ex- 
cept that  which  is  in  him.  A  man  must  have 
assimilated  an  idea  and  made  it  part  of  him- 
self before  he  can  impart  it  effectively  to 
others.  Phillips  Brooks  tells  us — and  none 
knew  it  better  than  he — that  a  sermon  should 

22 


ADENEY 


be  truth  passing  through  the  experience  of 
the  preacher,  and  Henry  Ward  Beecher  once 
said,  "Preaching  is  the  preacher  laying  his 
heart  on  the  people." 

But  it  is  even  more  than  that  with  our 
Lord's  teaching  of  truth;  because  His  vital 
and  personal  relation  to  it  is  peculiarly  in- 
timate. John  the  Baptist  was  ''a  voice  cry- 
ing in  the  wilderness" — a  voice,  the  message 
everything,  the  speaker  a  negligible  quantity. 
But  Jesus  is  more  than  a  voice — He  is  truth 
incarnate.  So  He  can  say,  "I  am  the  light 
of  the  world,"  "I  am  the  truth." 

We  often  hear  of  the  return  to  Christ  which 
our  age  has  witnessed,  and  if  we  ask,  what 
are  the  most  modern  ideas  in  religion?  the 
answer  is,  "The  ideas  of  the  Sermon  on  the 
Mount."  Apparently  some  people  are  just 
discovering  these  ideas  for  the  first  time — to 
them;  and  the  discovery  is  a  perfect  revela- 
tion for  them.  But  we  have  not  all  the  truth 
Jesus  is  prepared  to  give  us  when  we  have 
His  words.  The  words  of  Him  who  spake  as 
never  man  spake  are  of  incomparable  worth. 
When  a  scrap  of  a  papyrus  containing  six 
or  eight  very  doubtful  sentences  ascribed  to 
our  Lord  is  discovered,  its  contents  are  de- 
voured with  the  keenest  interest.  There  is 
an  admirable  little  book  entitled,  "The  Mas- 
ter's Guide,"  in  which  the  sayings  of  Jesus 
collected  from  the  New  Testament  are  ar- 
ranged under  the  headings  of  various  topics. 

23 


MODERN     SERMONS 


You  can  not  read  such  a  book  without  feel- 
ing that  what  it  contains  is  altogether  unique. 
Here  we  have  the  regalia  of  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  every  sentence  a  gem.  And  yet  we 
should  be  heavy  losers  if  we  gave  up  the  four 
gospels  in  exchange  for  such  a  book  as  this. 
It  is  not  enough  to  know  what  Jesus  said. 
We  want  to  know  Jesus  Himself,  Jesus  as  He 
is  revealed  in  deed  and  life  as  well  as  in 
word  and  teaching.  Here  we  have  the  truth 
He  brings  to  us  in  its  fulness  and  vitality 
and  power — "as  truth  is  in  Jesus." 

Now  we  are  often  reminded  that  this  is  an 
age  when  Pilate's  weary  question — perhaps  I 
should  say  his  cynical  question:  ''What  is 
truth?"  is  being  asked  with  a  new  intensity 
of  interest.  It  is  an  age  of  many  questions. 
Unfortunately,  it  is  also  an  age  of  many  an- 
swers, an  age  of  many  voices  all  clamorous 
for  a  hearing,  each  offering  its  own  solution 
of  the  riddles  of  existence.  If  any  of  us  are 
driven  to  seek  peace  in  the  intellectual  Nir- 
vana of  agnosticism,  it  is  not  for  want  of  a 
gospel,  it  is  rather  from  the  bewilderment  of 
the  claims  of  too  many  gospels.  But  how 
otherwise  are  we  to  escape  from  this  confusion 
of  cries,  this  babel  of  utterances,  and  all  the 
perplexity  it  engenders  and  the  despair  of 
ever  reaching  truth  to  which  it  points? 

I  answer,  we  must  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  the 
whole  of  them,  and  seek  truth  in  Jesus.  We 
must  leave  the  library  and  enter  our  chamber ; 


24 


ADENEY 


take  with  lis  our  New  Testament;  turn  to  the 
gospels;  make  a  study  of  them — a  study  with 
this  specific  end  in  view — to  discover  truth. 

Immediately  we  begin  thus  to  study  Jesus, 
so  to  say,  at  first  hand  in  these  gospel  por- 
traits, one  characteristic  most  strikes  us.  As 
a  leader  He  is  quite  sure  of  what  He  has  to 
say.  There  is  a  ring  of  certainty  in  all  His 
words.  Never  was  there  a  teacher  more  posi- 
tive, if  you  like  to  put  it  so,  more  dogmatic. 
We  have  our  views,  we  cherish  our  opinions, 
we  balance  arguments  and  measure  probabili- 
ties. You  never  find  Jesus  doing  anything 
of  the  kind.  You  never  hear  Him  talking  of 
His  views  or  His  opinions;  you  never  hear 
Him  speaking  in  our  hazy  style:  "On  the 
whole,  considering  all  the  facts  of  the  case,  I 
am  inclined  to  venture  the  assertion  that  this 
or  that  may  turn  out  to  be  the  explanation  of 
it."  If  you  discovered  a  new  logion  in  lan- 
guage such  as  that,  you  would  declare  it  a 
forgery  beyond  doubt.  For  the  style  of  Jesus, 
even  when  dealing  with  the  most  profound 
mysteries  of  existence,  is  thus :  ' '  Verily,  verily, 
I  say  unto  you."  I  do  not  say  that  He 
claimed  omniscience  on  earth.  He  even  re- 
pudiated it.  But  what  He  did  assert  He  as- 
serted with  unhesitating  decision. 

But  is  it  enough  to  be  positive?  We  all  of 
us  know  very  positive  people — popes  who 
claim  infallibility,  altho  no  Vatican  council 
has  voted  it  them — and  we  are  not  inclined 


25 


MODERN     SERMONS 


to  surrender  our  judgment  to  them  on  de- 
mand. Do  we  not  often  find  people  to  be 
positive  exactly  in  proportion  to  the  limited 
range  of  their  knowledge?  The  less  a  per- 
son knows  the  more  sure  he  is  of  everything; 
while  the  wider  his  horizon  becomes,  the  slower 
and  more  hesitating  he  will  be  in  making  a  dis- 
tinct assertion. 

It  is  not  enough,  then,  to  say  that  anyone 
is  very  positive.  We  must  first  face  the 
question  as  to  who  it  is  that  speaks  to  us 
with  this  singular  decisiveness.  I  doubt  not 
there  are  many  among  us  who  are  perfectly 
satisfied  on  that  point,  who  are  well  assured 
that  Jesus  is  the  very  Son  of  God  dwelling 
ever  in  the  bosom  of  the  Father,  who  can 
almost  see  the  angels  ascending  and  descend- 
ing on  the  Son  of  Man. 

But  if  it  be  the  case  that  we  have  not  all 
reached  this  position  of  calm  assurance,  if 
the  uncertainty  and  questioning  of  the  age 
have  driven  some  of  us  into  wondering 
thoughts  about  the  very  being  and  nature  of 
Christ,  how  is  it  possible  to  take  His  direct 
assurance  as  the  settlement  of  all  doubt?  We 
must  begin  at  a  more  preliminary  stage. 

Consider  the  case  of  the  expert,  who  con- 
descends to  leave  his  advanced  studies  for  a 
little  while,  and  instruct  us  in  some  of  the 
more  elementary  principles  of  his  science. 
What  a  firm  grip  he  has  of  the  subject!  With 
what  ease  he  moves  from  point  to  point !    His 

26 


ADENEY 


only  difficulty  is  not  to  go  too  far,  and  lead 
his  audience  out  of  their  depth.  Plainly,  he 
is  master  of  the  situation.  And  when  he  sits 
down  nothing  pleases  him  better  than  to  be 
questioned  on  anything  in  the  lecture.  At 
once  he  is  ready  to  explain  it  more  fully,  and 
his  ex  tempore  explanation  is  as  learned  and 
as  masterly  as  the  set  lecture.  You  can  not 
take  him  at  a  disadvantage.  You  can  sit  at 
the  feet  of  such  a  man  with  the  utmost  con- 
fidence. Clearly  he  has  a  right  to  speak  with 
authority. 

Now  is  it  not  clear,  when  you  study  the 
gospel  story,  that  Jesus  is  an  expert  in  re- 
ligion, by  the  side  of  whom  the  greatest  the- 
ologian appears  but  as  an  amateur  dabbling 
in  a  subject  too  large  for  him?  It  may  seem 
almost  irreverent  to  use  such  a  title  as  ''ex- 
pert" for  Jesus  Christ;  He  is  so  much  more. 
But  then  He  is  at  least  that.  Here,  surely, 
we  may  be  all  agreed.  What  is  to  us,  alas! 
too  much  a  strange  subject,  one  that  we  neg- 
lect for  a  multitude  of  minor  interests,  was 
to  Him  a  region  in  which  He  was  perfectly  at 
home.  He  lived  in  it  and  spoke  out  from  it 
as  from  the  depths  of  His  daily  experience. 

It  is  as  when  a  party  of  travelers  climbing 
some  wild  and  dangerous  mountain  find  them- 
selves enveloped  in  cloud.  All  trace  of  di- 
rection is  lost.  A  yawning  gulf  may  be  at 
their  feet.  But  one  is  well  on  in  advance  of 
the  rest.    He  has  reached  the  ridge  and  passed 

27 


MODERN    SERMONS 


the  cloud;  and  he  calls  back  to  the  others, 
''It  is  all  clear  here;  I  can  see  the  way  right 
on  to  the  summit;  follow  me  and  you  will  be 
safe.'*  His  position  of  advance  gives  him  au- 
thority to  speak.  As  we  listen  to  the  voice 
of  Jesus  coming  to  us  through  the  clinging 
mists  that  blot  out  the  landscapes  for  us  and 
chill  our  hearts,  we  discover  that  this  is  a 
voice  from  the  heights.  Is  it  nothing  that 
Jesus  can  say,  ' '  Follow  me !  He  that  f ollow- 
eth  me  shall  not  walk  in  darkness?"  He, 
too,  is  on  the  mountain  above  us — how  far 
exalted,  perhaps  we  may  not  yet  see ;  but,  at 
all  events,  well  in  advance — yes,  and  well  in 
advance  of  all  the  world's  great  thinkers  and 
teachers  of  religion.  Is  it  nothing  that  from 
this  high  ground  He  speaks  with  the  voice  of 
sure  knowledge  and  decisive  utterance?  And 
then,  as  I  have  said,  it  is  not  only  by  His 
words  that  He  guides  us.  His  person.  His 
life,  His  character  are  luminous  and  illumi- 
nating. 

Let  us  see  how  this  conception  of  truth,  as 
truth  is  in  Jesus,  may  apply  to  various  re- 
gions of  thought  and  life,  and  consider  what 
answer  to  the  questions  that  most  perplex  us 
may  be  found  in  the  Jesus  of  the  gospels,  in 
the  actual  contents  of  these  records.  The  in- 
quiry is  not  mystical;  it  is  literary  and  his- 
torical. As  such  it  may  not  be  finally  sat- 
isfactory to  all  minds,  still  it  is  the  path  of 
light. 

28 


A  D  E  N  E  Y 


First,  let  us  look  at  the  region  of  the  prac- 
tical. The  deepest,  darkest  doubt — a  doubt 
vastly  more  unsettling  than  any  amount  of 
speculative  uncertainty,  worse  even  than  what 
is  called  religious  skepticism,  because  it  cuts 
at  the  root  of  all  religion  and  all  goodness — 
is  moral  doubt  So  long  as  a  man  can  keep 
*' conscience  as  the  noontide  clear,"  with  un- 
hesitating faith  in  goodness  and  unwavering 
determination  to  pursue  it  at  all  hazards,  he 
can  never  be  utterly  at  sea.  All  may  seem 
lost,  sky  and  ocean  mixed  in  the  fury  of  tem- 
pest; and  yet,  while  the  anchor  of  conscience 
holds,  the  vessel  will  ride  the  storm.  But 
if  this  anchor  is  dragged,  if  the  very  funda- 
mental ideas  of  right  and  wrong  are  tossing 
in  confusion,  the  peril  is  great  indeed.  There 
is  absolutely  nothing  to  prevent  drifting  on 
to  the  rocks.  It  is  no  longer  the  eclipse  of 
faith.  It  is  the  shipwreck  of  faith.  Beware 
of  that  horror  of  horrors — moral  skepticism. 

But  how  is  it  to  be  escaped?  When  we 
turn  from  theory  to  fact,  the  world,  as  we 
see  it,  does  not  seem  to  show  that  sharp  dis- 
tinction, that  impassable  gulf,  that  vast  dis- 
tance as  from  pole  to  pole,  between  good  and 
evil.  The  t^'O  are  strangely  intermingled.  If 
even  a  good  man  looks  down  into  the  lower 
regions  of  his  nature,  he  may  be  startled  to 
discover  there  the  lurking  possibilities  of  the 
crimes  of  a  Borgia.  When  some  one  who  has 
been  respected  universally  as  a  pillar  of  vir- 

29 


MODERN    SERMONS 


tue  suddenly  falls,  or  is  suddenly  found  out 
in  some  base  action,  the  sight  of  such  unex- 
pected wickedness  sends  a  shock  through  so- 
ciety, and  tempts  the  world  to  say  that  all 
men  are  alike :  or  with  the  only  difference  that 
some  sin  openlj^  while  others  hide  their  mis- 
deeds ;  that  some  are  honest  Jinaves  and  the 
rest  but  hypocrites. 

This  miserable  cynicism  must  shrink  for 
very  shame  in  the  presence  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Will  anybody  venture  to  read  the  story  of 
His  life  and  still  maintain  that  there  is  no 
reality  in  goodness  ?  For  see  what  it  comes  to ! 
If  virtue  is  a  myth,  if  the  moral  law  is  an 
illusion,  if  there  is  no  essential  distinction  be- 
tween good  and  evil,  then  there  is  no  es- 
sential distinction  between  Jesus  Christ  and 
Judas  Iscariot.  And  by  all  the  appalling  dis- 
tance from  the  awful  purity  of  the  Savior  to 
the  sordid  vileness  of  the  traitor,  the  essen- 
tial distinction  between  good  and  evil  is  proved 
to  us.  If  not  in  St.  Francis,  if  not  in  John, 
if  in  no  saint,  or  martyr,  or  apostle,  still,  as 
the  last  resort,  in  Jesus,  assuredly,  we  can  see 
the  moral  law  vindicated.  He  magnifies  this 
law  and  makes  it  honorable.  He  established 
the  eternal  reality  of  goodness.  That  truth 
we  may  see  in  Jesus. 

The  frequency  of  failure  provokes  the  fur- 
ther question  whether  life  is  not  altogether 
a  mistake.  As  some  lives  are  spent,  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  resist  that  dismal  conclusion.     There 


30 


ADENEY 


are  stained  and  misshapen  lives  that  appear 
like  spots  and  blotches  in  creation,  their  very 
existence  a  blight  upon  society.  Are  there 
not,  too,  multitudes  of  lives  which,  if  not  thus 
stamped  with  offensiveness,  yet  are  no  com- 
fort to  the  livers  of  them  and  no  blessing  to 
others — poor,  withered,  doleful  lives  spent  in 
a  round  of  weary  drudgery,  with  no  prospect 
of  relief  but  by  the  merciful  hand  of  death? 
I  am  afraid  it  must  be  admitted  there  are 
ways  of  living  that  do  not  seem  to  make  life 
worth  the  trouble  of  lungs  in  drawing  breath, 
and  heart  in  driving  blood  to  keep  them  go- 
ing. It  is  possible  for  any  of  us  to  live  in 
such  a  mode — servile  in  poverty  or  self-in- 
dulgent in  luxury.  It  might  be  well  for  all 
of  us  occasionally  to  put  the  question  to  our- 
selves point  blank,  Are  we  living  in  a  way 
that  is  worth  all  the  cost  to  ourselves  and 
others  ? 

But  can  anybody  ask  that  question  con- 
cerning Jesus  Christ?  To  His  contempora- 
ries He  was  a  failure,  meeting  the  doom  of 
the  enthusiast  who  braves  the  conventions  of 
the  world,  cut  off  in  young  manhood,  tortured 
and  killed  by  the  death  of  the  vilest  criminal. 
And  yet,  we  know  that  He  did  not  fail.  If 
ever  any  life  was  a  success,  the  life  of  Jesus 
was.  It  was  the  life  which  reversed  the  whole 
course  of  history,  and  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  upward  movement  of  mankind.  Life  a 
failure?    Apparently  so  in  some  instances,  as 

31 


MODERN    SERMONS 


far  as  we  can  see  in  this  world;  but  not  the 
life  of  the  Crucified.  And,  therefore,  we  may 
conclude  that  just  in  proportion  as  we  fol- 
low Christ  our  lives,  too,  will  not  fail.  I 
do  not  know  what  to  say  of  many  lives,  but 
looking  at  it  in  the  light  of  truth,  I  am  per- 
fectly certain  that  the  Christian  life,  the  life 
of  self-denial  and  service,  cross-bearing  and 
Christ-likeness,  is  not  and  can  not  be  a  fail- 
ure.   This  is  as  the  truth  of  life  is  in  Jesus. 

The  same  rule  applies  when  we  turn  to  more 
mysterious  regions  of  speculative  inquiry. 
Questions  are  raised  concerning  the  nature  of 
Christ,  such  questions  as  rent  the  Church  in 
fierce  internal  conflicts  in  the  ages  of  the 
great  Christian  fathers.  Out  of  these  con- 
flicts came  the  creeds  that  were  to  settle  the 
dogmas  of  the  believer  for  all  subsequent  ages. 
But  to  many  of  us  these  creeds  are  not  final 
utterances.  They  affirm,  they  do  not  prove, 
neither  do  they  explain.  To  some  people  they 
only  appear  to  ''darken  counsel  with  words 
without  knowledge."  It  is  not  thus  that  we 
determine  any  truth  of  science.  Why  should 
we  expect  to  settle  theological  truth  in  so 
preposterous  a  method  of  finality?  Why 
should  the  twentieth  century  bow  down  to  the 
fourth  century,  dumb  and  submissive,  in  this 
the  most  difficult  of  questions,  and  in  this 
alone?  Surely,  we  have  learned  a  more  ex- 
cellent way.  The  naturalist  is  not  satisfied 
to  study  in  old  libraries;   he   examines  the 

32 


ADENEY 


objects  of  nature.  It  is  this  inductive  method 
of  Bacon  that  opened  the  door  to  science.  Is 
it  unreasonable  to  apply  the  same  method  in 
religion?  If  we  do,  the  right  way  to  know 
Christ  is  not  to  analyze  creeds,  it  is  to  make 
a  study  of  the  Jesus  of  the  gospels.  What  a 
picture  we  have  there — babe  of  Bethlehem, 
boy  at  Nazareth,  carpenter  in  the  workshop, 
preacher  by  the  lakeside,  brother  in  the  home, 
healer  of  the  sick,  victim  on  the  cross,  first- 
born from  the  dead!  Watch  Him  as  He 
moves  along  His  brief,  strange  course.  Hum- 
blest of  men,  yet  making  the  highest  claims; 
most  modest,  yet  never  confessing  to  a  fault. 

A  person  of  dull  conscience  may  defend 
himself  against  all  fault-finding.  As  a  rule, 
this  unruffled  sense  of  rectitude  is  exactly 
proportionate  to  the  torpor  of  conscience.  The 
awakened  conscience  is  self-accusing.  And  so 
it  comes  about  that  the  holiest  man  is  the 
most  eager  to  repudiate  the  title  to  holiness, 
that  the  saint  is  the  first  to  confess  himself 
a  sinner. 

But  Jesus  makes  no  such  confession.  He 
is  keenly  alive  to  the  evil  of  sin,  and  He  is 
unfaltering  in  the  denunciation  of  hypocrisy. 
We  can  not  say  He  is  callous  and  indifferent 
to  evil.  Yet  He  never  confesses  sin  of  His 
own;  claiming  to  forgive  sin  in  others,  He 
always  speaks  as  tho  there  were  none  in  Him- 
self. And  His  life  bears  out  this  personal 
conviction.     Neither  is  He  conscious  of  sin, 

1—3  33 


MODERN     SERMONS 


nor  can  anybody  detect  it  in  Him.  This  is 
the  first  wonder  of  His  life — the  sinlessness 
of  Jesus.  In  this  He  is  quite  alone  and  apart. 
How  shall  we  explain  it?  He  gives  us  His 
own  explanation:  ^'I  and  my  Father  are 
one."  Apostles,  evangelists,  those  who 
w^atched  Him  most  closely,  who  knew  Him 
best,  give  the  same  explanation  when  they 
describe  Him  as  the  Son  of  God.  I  can  see 
no  other  adequate  explanation  of  the  gospel 
record  than  this  assertion  of  the  divinity  of 
Christ.  This  is  not  merely  a  dogma  of  the 
creeds — it  is  a  truth  in  Jesus,  a  truth  in  the 
gospels,  a  truth  that  shines  out  of  the  ancient 
pages;  to  my  mind  and  to  many  minds  the 
only  way  of  accounting  for  what  is  recorded 
there. 

Again,  it  may  be  that  we  are  opprest  with 
the  larger  mystery  of  existence.  What  is  the 
meaning  of  this  vast,  perplexing  system  of 
things,  in  the  midst  of  which  we  live,  which 
we  call  universe?  Is  it  but  an  interminable 
nexus  of  forces,  or  is  there  mind  behind  force  ? 
Is  there  God?  If  so,  what  is  God?  The  ex- 
istence of  the  world  points  to  a  cause;  the 
order  of  the  universe  suggests  a  mind;  the 
beauty  of  nature  a  soul;  the  bountifulness 
of  life  a  heart.  And  yet,  when  we  have 
reached  these  conclusions,  Mill's  terrible  in- 
dictment of  nature  confronts  us.  Apparently 
all  is  not  wise  and  good.  Earthquakes,  fam- 
ine, flood,  plague — what  are  these? 

34 


A  D  E  N  E  Y 


But  here  is  the  dilemma — if  there  is  no 
God,  in  the  end  we  must  go  back  to  chance, 
and  chaos  is  the  parent  of  all  things.  Evo- 
lution introduces  an  orderly  process,  but  it 
is  only  a  process,  a  method,  not  a  cause.  Evo- 
lution inspired  by  God  is  a  sublime  theory  of 
creation.  Evolution  without  God  is  but  a 
product  of  chance.  Then  even  with  this 
theory  we  are  forced  back  on  something  like 
the  daring  epicurean  notion  so  brilliantly  set 
forth  by  the  Roman  poet  Lucretius — a  for- 
tuitous concourse  of  atoms,  falling,  as  he  had 
it,  through  space,  and  jostling  one  another 
incessantly  in  the  vast  cascade  of  them  till 
they  ultimately  chance  to  fall  into  a  condition 
of  order.  If  that  be  true,  then  Jesus  Christ 
is  the  result  of  such  a  chance,  a  product  of 
blind  and  purposeless  evolution — His  life  but 
as  one  speck  of  foam  flung  up  from  the  dark 
ocean  of  existence. 

And  further,  if  there  is  no  mind  in  the 
universe,  if  the  brain  secretes  thought  as  the 
liver  secretes  bile,  then  we  must  come  to  this 
wild  and  desperate  conclusion  that  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount  and  the  parable  of  the  prodigal 
son  are  by-products  of  certain  chance  combi- 
nations of  phosphates  and  nitrates  in  the  brain 
of  an  orgr.nism  to  which  we  misleadingly  at- 
tach the  greatest  of  names.  It  is  abhorrent  to 
state  such  a  conclusion;  yet  we  must  be  hon- 
est; we  must  be  consistent.  There  is  no  al- 
ternative.   This  is  the  conclusion  to  which  we 

35 


MODERN     SERMONS 


must  be  driven  on  the  materialistic  hypothe- 
sis. 

Philosophers  have  described  animals  as  au- 
tomatons, and  there  are  men  whose  sheer 
animalism  of  existence  encourages  the  hypo- 
thesis. These  are  the  excuses  for  material- 
ism. But  it  breaks  down  utterly  in  the 
presence  of  Jesus.  The  credulity  of  the  Chris- 
tian is  as  nothing  to  the  credulitj^  of  the  ma- 
terialist who  can  believe  that  all  we  read  in 
the  gospel  story  is  but  a  fine  and  vaporous 
emanation  of  chemical  elements.  The  being 
of  God  and  the  existence  of  mind,  of  soul,  of 
spirit,  are  vindicated  by  the  very  being  of 
Jesus.    These  truths  are  to  be  seen  in  Him. 

There  is  one  more  question  to  which  I  wish 
to  apply  this  solvent  of  the  truth  that  is 
found  in  the  gospels,  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus — the  question  of  a  future  life.  We 
must  all  feel  that  much  of  what  is  said  on 
this  subject  will  not  bear  a  very  close  scrutiny. 
There  are  times  when  we  can  not  be  satisfied 
with  conventional  notions.  When  we  stand 
by  the  open  grave  of  a  very  dear  friend,  or 
when  the  doctor  has  warned  us  that  we  should 
do  well  to  put  our  affairs  in  order,  as  the 
summons  may  come  to  us  at  any  moment; 
when  it  has  become  clear  that  close  at  hand 
*'the  shadow  sits  and  waits  for  us,"  then,  in 
these  moments  of  intense  reality,  we  can  not 
be  satisfied  with  the  flowers  of  hymnology 
and  pulpit  eloquence,   and  we  ask  in  grim 

36 


ADENEY 


earnest  Job's  straight  question:  "If  a  man 
die  shall  he  live  again?" 

What  is  Christ's  answer  to  that  pregnant 
question.  It  is  a  very  remarkable  answer — 
quite  one  by  itself — reticent,  yet  clear  and 
positive.  Jesus  paints  no  fancy  pictures  of 
elysian  fields  where  happy  souls  walk  in  meads 
of  asphodel ;  He  draws  no  plan  of  a  heavenly 
city  with  gates  of  pearl  and  streets  of  gold. 
To  the  curiosity  that  hungers  for  informa- 
tion about  the  forms  and  manners  of  the  life 
beyond  He  is  perfectly  silent.  But  to  the 
deeper  hunger  for  life  after  death  He  is  most 
reassuring.  He  is  as  positive  on  this  subject 
as  on  any  other.  His  words  are  few,  but 
they  are  quite  clear  and  absolutely  unwaver- 
ing. While  we  halt  and  hesitate,  and  falter 
and  tremble,  before  the  mystery  of  death.  He, 
above  our  mists,  standing  there  in  the  light, 
is  certain.     Surely,  this  means  much! 

What  can  be  more  decisive  than  such  words 
as  these:  ''He  that  believeth  in  me,  tho  he 
were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live":  ''in  my 
Father's  house  are  many  places  of  rest.  If 
it  were  not  so  I  would  have  told  you."  I  do 
not  know  any  statement  of  the  case  more  ex- 
act and  true  than  that  in  Bichard  Baxter's 
most  honest  hymn: 

My  knowledge   of   that '  life   is  small, 

The  eye  of  faith  is  dim; 
But    'tis  enough  that  Christ   knows  all. 

And  I  shall  be  with  Him. 


37 

144615 


MODERN     SERMONS 


And  here  we  have  a  further  confirmation 
beyond  the  words  and  direct  teaching  of 
Jesus — His  own  resurrection.  Jesus  was 
raised  up  from  the  dead ;  He  came  back  from 
beyond  the  shadows — the  first-born  among 
many  brethren.  That  is  in  the  record  of  the 
gospels.  The  very  existence  of  the  Church — 
itself  a  resurrection  after  the  despair  of  Cal- 
vary— is  witness  to  the  resurrection  of  Jesus, 
and  that  in  turn  is  witness  to  the  life  eternal. 
To  any,  then,  who  may  be  distrest  by  the 
wild,  free  questions  of  our  day;  to  any  who 
may  be  bewildered  by  the  hosts  of  conflicting 
voices  each  offering  its  own  reply,  this  is  one 
way  of  life  and  guidance.  Study  the  gospels. 
Come  to  a  first-hand  knowledge  of  Jesus. 
Learn  of  Him.  Consider  what  a  Master  of 
His  subject  He  is,  how  clear  His  vision,  how 
serene  His  assurance,  how  positive  His  utter- 
ance, how  real  His  life !  All  else  may  waver ; 
mists  may  gather  round  the  cherished  con- 
victions of  childhood.  Jesus  abides,  the  light 
of  the  world  and  the  light  of  the  ages.  In 
Him  shall  we  see  light. 


BECKWITH 
STRENGTH  FROM  THE  INVISIBLE 


39 


CLARENCE  AUGUSTINE  BECKWITH 

Professor  of  systematic  theology  Chi- 
cago Theological  Seminary  since  1905; 
born  Charlemont,  Mass.,  July  21,  1849; 
Olivet  College,  Mich.,  1874 ;  studied  Yale 
University  School,  1874-76;  gi'aduated 
Bangor  Theological  Seminary,  Maine, 
1877;  University  of  Berlin,  Germany, 
1897,8;  ordained  CongTegational  clergy- 
man, 1877;  pastor  of  Brewer,  Me.,  in 
1877-82;  West  Roxbury  (Boston),  1882- 
92;  professor  of  Christian  theology,  Ban- 
gor Theological  Seminary,  1892-1905; 
author  of  ''Realities  of  Christian  The- 
ology." 


40 


STRENGTH    FROM    THE    INVISIBLE 

Prof.  Clarence  A.  Beckwith,  S.T.D. 

"Se   endured,   as   seeing   him   who   is   invisible." — 
Heb.    11  :  27. 

HE  endured.  The  word  here  means  more 
than  if  it  were  said,  he  bore  his  bur- 
den well;  and  more  than  that  he 
waited  with  long  suffering  until  the  end  came. 
It  means  that  he  had  strength  to  be  stedfast. 
There  was  a  deep  and  constant  force  from 
within  with  which  he  met  the  strange  vicissi- 
tudes of  his  life.  In  our  childhood  we  learned 
that  Moses  was  the  meekest  man;  but  this 
word  tells  us  that  if  he  freely  bowed  himself 
or  was  heavily  bowed  under  the  discipline  of 
God,  yet  that  he  bore  all  with  a  still,  quiet 
temper.    Thus  he  endured. 

And  he  endured  as  if  he  saw  the  invisible 
One.  Some  scholars  interpret  this  to  mean 
that  he  endured  because  he  saw  God,  and 
point  to  the  statement  that  he  talked  with 
God  as  a  man  talks  with  his  friend,  face  to 
face.  And  they  refer  to  the  vision  granted  to 
him  as  he  stood  in  the  cleft  of  the  rock.  But 
we  do  not  forget  that  God  said,  "Thou  canst 
not  see  my  face;  for  man  shall  not  see  my 
face  and  live."  And  we  remember  the  words 
of  John,  "No  man  hath  seen  God  at  any  time." 

41 


MODERN     SERMONS 


It  is  better  therefore  to  think  of  him  as  en- 
during just  as  one  would  who  beheld  the  un- 
seen One. 

He  is  not  the  only  one  of  whom  the  Bible 
speaks,  the  secret  of  whose  life  is  just  here. 
From  first  to  last,  prophets  and  apostles  knew 
no  other  principle.  Try  any  other  key  to  their 
endurance  and  their  lives  do  not  open  to  your 
touch.  And  no  one  of  us  can  endure  in  any 
other  way. 

In  early  life,  one  feels  little  if  any  need 
of  this  thought.  Indeed,  then,  many  of  the 
preacher's  words  sounded  to  us  far  off  and 
strange.  They  might  be  true  for  our  elders, 
but  to  us  they  seemed  unreal.  It  was  enough 
for  us  then  if  the  sun  shone,  if  the  fields 
were  white  in  winter  and  green  in  summer, 
and  if  the  innocent,  uncaring  days  were  full 
of  gladness  and  hope.  But  as  time  wore  on, 
more  and  more  demands  were  made  upon  us 
from  within.  Few  persons  have  entered  middle 
life  without  passing  through  some  experience 
which  demanded  all  the  forces  of  the  spirit  to 
meet.  Through  personal  loss  we  have  been 
thrown  on  our  own  resources.  Some  one  has 
become  suddenly  dependent  on  us.  By  force 
of  circumstances  we  are  in  a  single  instant 
required  to  assume  responsibility  for  which 
up  to  that  hour  we  had  felt  ourselves  wholly 
unprepared  and  unequal.  Almost  without 
warning  a  terrible  sorrow  has  blackened  all 
our  world,  and  in  our  night  of  grief  the  sun 

42 


BECKWITH 


and  moon  were  darkened,  the  stars  of  heaven 
fell,  and  stunned  and  groping,  we  felt  our 
way  back  into  light. 

We  do  not  need  to  enumerate  such  instances. 
As  we  go  on  in  life  the  group  of  persons  long 
associated  with  us  gradually  lessens,  and  we 
can  but  ask,  Who  next?  And  when  one  is 
taken,  how  often  we  exclaim,  What  shall  we 
do?  We  can  not  stop  living.  We  must  still 
go  on.  We  have  to  take  up  the  burden  of 
existence,  now  become  heavier,  and  bear  it 
all  the  days  of  our  appointed  time.  But  the 
world  will  never  be  the  same  again.  Our 
hearts  will  never  again  feel  the  same  light- 
ness and  cheer.  The  shadows  will  never  com- 
pletely lift.  It  is  childhood  now  that  seems 
far  off  and  strange.  We  now  know  the  mean- 
ing of  bitter  tears.  The  cup  of  grief  from 
which  we  shrink  is  prest  to  our  lips  and  we 
have  to  drain  it,  perhaps  to  the  very  dregs. 

In  such  hours  and  for  future  days,  how  shall 
we  endure?  Not  surely  by  drowning  our 
grief  in  recklessness,  not  by  indifference  to  it, 
not  by  steeling  the  heart  to  it,  not  by  resolve 
against  being  overcome  by  it,  not  merely  by 
saying  that  better  days  will  come  by  and  by. 
There  is  only  one  way — to  endure  as  if  seeing 
Him  who  is  invisible. 

There  are  other  events  and  other  expe- 
riences where  we  have  need  of  the  same  spirit 
of  stedfast  fortitude.  Take  it,  for  example, 
in  character.     Many  of  us  made  our  choice 


43 


MODERN     SERMONS 


of  the  Savior  in  fear  and  trembling.  We 
knew  something  of  the  temptations  of  the 
world,  and  we  were  not  strangers  to  the  in- 
stability of  our  own  hearts.  But  feeling  that 
He  was  the  last  resort  for  help,  to  Him  we 
came.  As  time  passes,  however,  instead  of 
deepening  peace,  we  become  victims  of  in- 
creasing distress.  Our  nature,  like  that  of 
Jacob  and  Balaam,  of  David  and  Simon 
Peter,  is  found  to  be  full  of  contradictions. 
We  would  do  good,  but  evil  is  present  with 
us.  We  would  die  the  death  of  the  righteous, 
but  in  our  living  drop  back  to  the  pursuits  of 
sinners.  Brave  one  moment,  the  next  we  be- 
come disheartened.  On  one  side  the  windows 
of  the  soul  open  out  toward  the  hills  of  God, 
bathed  in  celestial  light,  and  we  long  to  climb 
to  their  safety  and  strength ;  but  on  the  other 
side  our  outlook  is  toward  a  world  that  fas- 
cinates us  with  human  sin;  and,  drawn  to 
its  fatal  spell,  we  forget  the  security  of  the 
hills  and  pitch  our  tents  toward  Sodom.  Ex- 
plain it  how  we  will,  such  contradiction,  even 
in  men  in  process  of  renewal  by  the  spirit  of 
God,  is  a  common  experience,  and,  indeed,  I 
do  not  believe  that  in  any  others  it  ever  comes 
into  such  complete  and  painful  prominence. 
These  hearts  of  ours  are  infinitely  complex 
and  hard  to  understand.  But  understood  or 
not,  the  conflict  goes  on,  and,  kept  up  for 
years  with  no  perfect  and  final  victory,  the 
contest  seems  an  endless  one.     God  has  not 

44 


BECKWITH 


helped  us  as  we  expected.  We  have  grown 
impatient.  In  some  such  hour  of  brooding 
we  have  been  tempted  to  fear  that  our  lives 
were  never  in  the  hand  of  God ;  that  evil  is  to 
be  conquered,  if  at  all,  not  in  union  with 
God,  but  wholly  by  human  striving.  Perhaps 
some  one  advises  us  to  put  character  on  a 
purely  human  basis.  But  the  trouble  with  all 
this  is  that  any  struggling  soul,  however  slight 
its  hold  on  God,  robbed  of  its  heavenly  helper, 
becomes  a  prey  to  despair.  The  one  thing 
that  sustained  even  a  feeble  faith  gone,  noth- 
ing remains  but  collapse. 

Take  again  the  word  that  *'to  them  that 
love  God,  all  things  work  together  for  good. ' ' 
Amid  all  the  seeming  disasters,  the  perplexing 
events  of  the  world,  this  principle  of  provi- 
dence streams  down  as  a  light,  an  explanation, 
a  comfort  to  the  soul.  There  is  no  physical 
agony,  no  persecution,  no  dungeon,  no  deep 
trial,  no  death-bed,  no  bereaved  and  solitary 
life  to  which  it  may  not  minister  its  balm.  To 
this  high  confidence,  in  some  hour  of  spiritual 
exaltation,  we  may  commit  ourselves.  Or, 
again,  looking  out  upon  the  tangled  confusion 
presented  by  human  life,  we  may  while  yet 
at  a  safe  distance  make  our  own  the  con- 
fession of  those  deep  souls  who  have  written : 

Yet   in   the   maddening  maze   of  tilings 
And  tossed  by  storm  and  flood, 

To  one  fixt  stake  my  spirit  clings; 
I  know  that  God  is  good. 

45 


MODERN    SERMONS 


I  know  not  what  the  future  hath 

Of  marvel  or  surprize, 
Assured   alone  that   life   or   death 

His  mercy  underlies. 

But  now,  having  voiced  onr  confession, 
when  the  supreme  hour  of  trial  arrives,  and 
our  hearts  that  then  would  fain  trust  are 
torn  with  doubt  and  fear,  some  friend  or 
some  book  or  some  evil  thought  from  within 
instils  the  fear  that  our  faith  is  vain.  No 
doubt  it  was  a  pleasant  dream,  harmless  so 
long  as  we  had  no  real  need  of  it  and  could 
not  put  it  to  the  test,  but  now — God  can  do 
nothing  for  us !  We  are  bidden.  Take  things 
as  they  come  and  make  the  best  of  circum- 
stances. Has  any  soul  haunted  by  such  a 
doubt  ever  met  the  trying  vicissitudes  of  our 
human  life  with  a  stedfast  fortitude? 

The  same  thing  comes  up  in  another  form, 
with  respect  to  prayer  and  its  answer.  Jesus 
said,  Ask  and  ye  shall  receive.  We  do  lift 
up  lame  hands  of  faith.  From  childhood  we 
have  offered  the  Lord's  Prayer.  The  simple 
evening  petition  taught  us  by  our  mother  we 
have  not  ceased  to  use.  Once  and  again  in 
stress  of  need  we  have,  like  our  Savior,  gone 
apart  from  men  and  in  an  agony  prayed  to 
the  Father.  We  are,  indeed,  convinced  that 
if  prayer  is  not  merely  the  reflection  of  our 
earthly  troubles  and  needs,  but  much  rather 
the  act  of  devotion  in  which  we  rise  to  the 
consciousness  of  God  and  realize  that  eleva- 

46 


BECKWITH 


tion  of  spirit  above  the  world  in  which  the 
unrest  that  springs  from  the  transient  and 
imperfect  forms  of  particular  desires  gives 
place  to  the  sweet  and  blessed  peace  of  the 
life  to  come — if  this  is  the  deepest  signifi- 
cance of  prayer,  then  men  will  need  to  pray 
as  long  as  they  have  human  hearts  and  God 
has  some  better  thing  for  them  than  merely 
earthly  goods.  But  some  wise  man  whose 
glass  has  swept  the  heavens  or  brought  to 
light  minutest  existences,  whose  test-tube  and 
crucible  resolve  all  substances  to  their  sim- 
plest elements,  whose  scalpel  has  divided  the 
secret  cells  of  the  brain,  but  found  there  no 
inmost  dwelling-place  of  spirit,  whose  phi- 
losophy traces  everywhere  only  an  unbroken 
and  endless  series  of  phenomenal  cause  and 
effect,  this  man  interrupts  your  prayer  with 
the  remark,  ''It  is  only  ignorant  people  who 
pray."  And  he  silences  your  praying  with 
his  argument  or  his  sneer.  But  still  you  feel 
as  praying  men  have  always  felt,  that  the  last 
word  on  prayer  is  not  to  be  spoken  by  a 
prayerless  man.  There  are  many  suffering 
hearts  which,  if  they  have  to  accept  this  as 
the  final  reality  on  prayer,  have  nothing  to 
do  but  to  break. 

Once  more,  we  see  in  each  of  us  the  tend- 
ency of  inevitable  despair  in  the  fear  of  ap- 
proaching death.  Death  may  mean  little  or 
nothing  to  the  man  who  has  lived  basely;  he 
would  not  care  to  continue  it,  and  he  is  un- 

47 


MODERN     SF.RMONS 


willing  to  change.  But  for  him  whose  life 
has  been  noble,  shining  with  purity,  beaming 
with  unselfishness  and  sympathy,  filled  with 
the  spirit  of  God,  to  have  to  feel  that  death 
ends  all  is  a  terrible  blow.  To  have  to  be- 
lieve as  we  then  must  that  there  is  earthly 
struggle  but  no  celestial  victory,  that  the 
future  is  a  dream  and  our  vision  of  it  a 
mirage,  this  will  w^eck  hope  in  the  bravest 
heart.  Yet  the  air  is  full  of  such  teaching. 
One  says  that  we  are  to  be  resolved  back  into 
the  elements  whence  we  came.  Another  ar- 
gues that  we  are  immortal  only  through  the 
influence  which  we  set  in  motion  while  yet 
alive  on  the  earth.  Another,  with  no  noble 
discontent  at  the  narrow  conditions  of  mor- 
tality, joins  the  age-long  chorus,  ''Let  us  eat 
and  drink,  for  to-morrow  we  die."  The  con- 
tagion of  this  unbelief  widely  affects  society. 
Many  a  man  who  in  youth  set  out  to  strive 
mightily  against  the  deadening  influence  of 
the  world  little  suspects  the  quarter  whence 
comes  his  unnerving.  He  who  falls  under  the 
spell  of  threescore-and-ten  earthly  years  is 
robbed  of  the  hope  of  eternal  life,  and  it  is 
not  strange  that  he  does  not  rise  above  petti- 
ness and  vexation  and  the  fear  of  death  into 
the  nobility  of  the  Christian  faith. 

We  come  upon  the  same  law  as  we  try  to 
picture  the  future  life.  Every  one  of  us  has 
his  questions  about  the  unseen  world.  At 
times  these  questions  start  up  in  connection 

48 


BECKWITH 


with  those  long,  long  thoughts  which  haunt 
us  when  meditating  on  the  meaning  of  this 
human  life.  At  other  times  the  final  parting 
with  dear  ones  draws  us  close  up  to  the 
veil.  We  try  to  present  them  to  ourselves 
after  they  are  gone.  "We  dream  of  their  con- 
dition. We  imagine  their  occupations.  We  love 
to  believe  that  they  are  not  too  busy  nor 
forgetful  to  think  of  us  whom  they  have  left 
behind,  and  to  look  forward  to  the  hour  when 
we  shall  once  more  join  them  there.  We  take 
the  Bible  and  read  what  it  says  of  the  better 
land.  The  intimations  that  are  so  shadowy, 
the  language  capable  of  so  many  interpreta- 
tions, we  would  fain  reduce  to  the  imagery 
of  earth.  We  search  for  help  from  every 
quarter.  Swedenborg  in  his  "Heaven  and 
Hell,"  Mrs.  Oliphant  in  her  ''Little  Pilgrim" 
and  her  "Land  of  Darkness,"  Elizabeth  Stu- 
art Phelps  m  her  "Gates  Ajar,"  "The  Gates 
Between,"  and  "Beyond  the  Gates,"  these  all 
help  us ;  but  yet,  after  we  have  done  what  we 
may,  the  eternal  life,  the  glory  of  God,  the 
celestial  city  must  be  grasped  by  faith  and 
not  by  sight. 

So,  then,  whether  we  speak  of  the  vicissi- 
tudes of  loss  and  change,  of  character,  of 
providence,  of  prayer,  of  death,  of  the  future 
life,  one  law  holds  good  for  each  alike.  We 
endure  in  stedfast  fortitude  just  as  if  we 
saw  the  unseen,  the  One  who  is  invisible. 

Here,  then,  our  lives  enter  into  fellowship 

1—4  49 


MODERN     SERMONS 


with  the  greatest  souls  of  the  ages.  We  are 
at  one  with  Moses,  who,  on  unseen  but  eternal 
reality,  laid  the  foundation  of  the  Hebrew 
commonwealth.  Here,  too,  we  are  united  with 
Gautama,  the  founder  of  the  still  powerful 
Buddhist  faith,  who,  for  the  sake  of  the  in- 
visible, turned  his  back  on  earthly  power  and 
happiness  and  through  his  great  renunciation 
became  the  father  of  all  those  who  have 
sought  release  from  the  essential  emptiness, 
instability,  and  misery  of  this  mortal  exist- 
ence. We  join  hands  with  Socrates,  who,  in 
the  prison  in  his  last  hours,  while  the  sun  was 
yet  high  upon  the  western  hilltops,  took  his 
farewell  of  the  few  friends  gathered  there — 
just  as  later  Jesus  did  in  the  upper  chamber 
— and  having  discoursed  with  them  on  justice 
and  virtue,  on  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  on 
the  inner  voice,  and  on  the  will  of  God,  sealed 
with  his  death  the  noble  idealism  for  which 
he  had  lived.  We  enter  into  fellowship  with 
the  great  souls  of  the  Egyptians,  who,  estab- 
lishing the  mighty,  long-enduring  empire  of 
the  Pharaohs,  building  the  pyramids,  and 
hewing  out  the  Sphinx,  have  left  us  in  their 
Book  of  the  Dead  an  immortal  witness  that 
they  also  were  haunted  by  the  riddle  of  ex- 
istence, that  their  true  life  was  in  the  unseen 
and  the  eternal.  We  take  our  place  with  Co- 
lumbus, who,  in  search  of  a  new  way,  setting 
sail  upon  an  untracked  sea. 

Went  sounding  on,  a  dim  and  perilous  way; 


60 


BECK  WITH 


with  Newton,  who  held  to  a  law  of  gravity 
for  all  the  motions  of  the  heavenly  bodies; 
with  Darwin  and  Spencer  in  their  generaliza- 
tion of  evolution  as  the  method  by  which  the 
unseen  universe  is  continually  passing  into 
manifold  and  radiant  forms  of  existence. 

Not  alone  in  those  great  experiences  which 
have  a  world-wide  reference,  but  in  those 
w^hich  belong  to  common  life  does  our  prin- 
ciple hold  true;  the  mother  watching  by  the 
bedside  of  her  dying  child  w^ith  heart  ready 
to  burst  yet  restraining  her  tears,  the  father 
who  waits  and  longs  for  the  recovery  of  his 
erring  son,  the  youth  as  he  stands  before  the 
as  yet  unrealized  ideal  of  his  life,  the  maiden 
who  is  plighting  her  troth  to  him  with  whom 
her  future  is  to  be  united  in  the  utmost  in- 
timacy of  personal  association,  the  scholar  as 
he  ponders  the  problems  of  the  world  or  of 
human  existence,  nay,  even  every  one  who 
lays  himself  down  to  sleep  trusting  to  waken 
refreshed  from  his  slumbers.  In  a  word,  all 
life  rises  out  of  and  rests  back  upon  an 
invisible  reality  to  which  we  owe  all  that 
we  are  or  can  hope  to  become.  If  God  is 
the  unity  of  all  that  is,  the  ideal  of  ideals, 
the  power  that  supplements  our  weakness,  the 
source  and  ground  as  well  as  the  end  of  our 
being,  then  the  truth  of  our  text  is  the  truth 
of  all  human  life — we  endure  as  seeing  Him 
who  is  invisible. 

When,    therefore,    this    is    consciously    ac- 

51 


MODERN    SERMONS 


cepted,  who  of  us  but  says  that  this  is  the 
best  part  of  life.  Man  was  not  made  merely 
to  walk  with  eyes  downcast  upon  the  earth, 
to  delve  in  its  depths,  to  sail  its  seas,  to  amass 
its  treasures,  to  seek  its  applause,  to  be  sat- 
isfied with  its  abundance;  doing  all  this,  he 
is  not  at  rest.  He  seeks  with  scalpel  for  the 
secret  of  life,  with  telescope  he  traces  the  un- 
trodden pathway  of  sun  and  stars,  but  beyond 
all  he  feels  that  there  is  a  background  of 
spiritual  reality,  reality  of  being,  of  right- 
eousness, of  life.  The  noblest  part  of  man 
emerges  when  he  lays  hold  on  eternity.  ' '  The 
world  passeth  away  and  the  lust  thereof ;  but 
he  that  doeth  the  will  of  God  abideth  for- 
ever. ' ' 

In  such  a  life  appearances  however  dark, 
and  experiences  be  they  never  so  painful,  are 
powerless  to  crush  the  heart.  Not  that  the 
Christian  man  will  not  have  his  hours  of 
grief  and  sense  of  loss  and  feelings  of  depres- 
sion ;  he  will  have  his  tears,  and  through  sym- 
pathy his  heart  will  ache.  But  he  has  put 
his  heart  above  the  world,  he  has  put  God 
above  man,  eternity  above  time,  or  rather  the 
world,  and  man  and  time  get  all  their  mean- 
ing for  him  from  his  faith  in  God. 

Such  a  spirit  is  a  conquest.  But  it  does  not 
come  simply  by  wishing.  There  is  no  short 
cut  to  it.  Our  Savior  has  given  us  the  secret, 
"In  your  patience  ye  shall  win  your  souls.'* 
The  poet  also  offers  us  the  clue: 

52 


BECKWITH 


Who  ne'er  in  sorrow  ate  his  bread, 
"V\Tio  never  in  the  midnight  hours 

Sat  weeping  on  his  lonely  bed — 

He  knows  you  not,  ye  heavenly  powers. 

It  is  a  precious  possession,  and  he  alone 
wins  it  who  pays  the  price.  It  is  richly  worth 
the  cost  of  tears  and  pain  and  inward  struggle 
and  prayer.  To  let  loss  and  defeated  hope 
and  perplexity  and  the  fear  of  death  come 
upon  us  with  all  their  crushing  power,  and 
then,  in  the  midst  of  them  all,  to  slowly  gather 
the  inner  forces  of  our  being  as  if  in  full 
sight  of  God  and  thus  to  push  back  their 
deadening  weight  and  stand  forth  strong  and 
unconquered,  this,  this  is  an  achievement 
worthy  of  the  best  that  is  in  us.  Many  of  us 
know  what  this  is,  and  prize  it  so  highly  that 
if  all  else  were  to  be  taken  from  us,  we  would 
beg  that  it  alone  might  remain. 

For  it  is  this  spirit  of  life  which  holds  the 
secret  of  power.  No  other  character  is  worth 
anything  save  that  which  enshrines  those  reali- 
ties whose  source  and  home  is  in  God.  One 
can  accomplish  nothing  which  repays  the 
labor  except  as  he  draws  his  inspiration  and 
aim  from  a  world  that  time  and  change  can 
not  destroy,  but  can  only  glorify.  When 
called  to  suffer,  you  know  that  such  a  one 
will,  indeed,  bow  the  head,  and  his  heart  will, 
for  a  while,  in  his  grief  lie  hushed,  and,  it 
may  be,  stunned;  but  the  reed  tho  bruised  is 
not  broken,  and  when  the  storm  has  passed 

5? 


MODERN     SERMONS 


will  lift  itself  as:ain  to  receive  the  light  of  the 
sun;  and  the  dimly-burning  flax,  of  which 
the  old  prophet  spoke,  beaten  upon  by  the 
wind  yet  unquenched,  will  burn  with  a  clear, 
bright  flame  once  more.  And  when  he  min- 
isters to  others  in  their  sorrow  and  need,  he 
becomes  a  tower  of  strength  to  them;  some- 
thing of  the  conquest  of  his  own  inner  life 
will  pass  over  into  theirs,  and  in  it  they  will 
find  power  to  endure  as  if  seeing  Him  who  is 
invisible. 


54 


BEECHER 

BARTIMiEUS 


55 


WILLIS  JUDSON  BEECHER 

Ex-PROFESSOR  of  Hebrew  language  and 
literature,  Auburn  Theological  Semi- 
nary, Auburn,  N.  Y.;  withdrew  from 
Auburn,  1908,  and  is  now  devoting  his 
time  to  writing  for  the  press;  born  in 
Hampden,  Ohio,  April  29,  1833 ;  prepara- 
tory education  Augusta  and  Yernon 
academies,  N.  Y.,  1852-54;  graduated 
from  Hamilton  College,  1858;  from  the 
theological  seminary,  Auburn,  1864;  or- 
dained to  the  Presbyterian  ministry, 
1864;  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  church, 
0\dd,  N.  Y.,  1864,5;  professor  of  moral 
science  and  belles-lettres,  Knox  College, 
Galesburg,  111.,  1865-69;  pastor  of  the 
First  Church  of  Christ  of  Galesburg,  111., 
1869-71;  D.D.  Hamilton  College,  1875; 
Princeton  University,  1896;  author  of 
*^ Farmer  Thompkins  and  His  Bibles," 
''The  Stone  Lectures"  in  Princeton 
Theological  Seminary,  1902,  ''The  Proph- 
ets and  the  Promises,"  "The  Teaching 
of  Jesus  Concerning  the  Future  Life," 
"The  Dated  Events  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment," etc. 


56 


BARTIM^US 
Willis  J.  Beecher,  D.D. 

"The  son  of  Timceus,  Bartimceus,  a  'blind  beggar,  was 
sitting  by  the  wayside." — Mark  10  :  46.  (Compare 
Matt.   20  :  29-34;    Mark   10  :  46-52;    Luke   18  :  35-43. 

THREE  evangelists  give  each  an  account  of 
the  healing  of  a  blind  beggar  near  Jeri- 
cho, within  the  last  weeks  of  our  Sa- 
vior's ministry,  .and  there  are  differences  in 
the  accounts.  In  particular,  Matthew  and 
]\Iark  say  that  the  healing  occurred  when  Jesus 
was  going  out  from  Jericho,  while  Luke  says 
that  it  occurred  when  Ke  was  drawing 
near  to  Jericho.  Luke  says  that  the 
healing  was  that  of  a  certain  blind  man, 
and  Mark  mentions  this  blind  man  by 
name,  while  Matthew  speaks  of  two  blind 
men  and  uses  his  verbs  and  pronouns  in 
the  plural.  Owing  to  these  differences,  some 
have  held  that  the  different  evangelists  refer 
to  different  incidents.  It  seems  to  me,  how- 
ever, that  the  majority  are  correct  in  regard- 
ing the  three  as  accounts  of  the  same  event. 
Jesus  probably  spent  some  days  at  Jericho. 
Each  day  He  and  His  disciples  made  excur- 
sions out  from  the  city,  for  the  purposes  of  His 
mission,  and  returned  at  evening.  The  healing 
may  have  occurred  when  they  went  out  from 
the  city  on  one  of  these  excursions,  and  during 

57 


MODERN     SERMONS 


that  part  of  the  excursion  when  they  ap- 
proached the  city  on  their  return.  It  is  clear 
that  Bartimagus  had  some  prominence  among 
the  disciples,  and  the  story  was  especially  in- 
teresting as  being  that  of  this  well-known 
person.  If  he  had  a  companion,  it  is  not 
strange  that  some  of  the  narrators  should 
mention  the  fact  and  others  should  not,  even 
tho  both  men  became  followers  of  Jesus.  Mark 
and  Luke  do  not  mention  his  companion,  but 
they  do  not  deny  that  he  had  one. 

If  we  thus  put  all  the  particulars  together, 
we  find  in  the  gospels  four  sharply  drawn  pic- 
tures concerning  these  blind  men;  and  they 
are  worth  looking  at.  The  first  of  the  four 
we  may  call,  if  you  please,  The  Blind  Beg- 
gars by  the  Roadside. 

The  time  is  a  few  days  before  Easter.  The 
place  is  down  in  the  torrid  Jordan  Valley, 
some  hundreds  of  feet  lower  than  the  ocean 
level.  On  the  uplands  the  crops  of  grain  are 
still  green,  but  there  in  the  valley  they  are 
yelloAving  for  the  harvest.  Jesus  and  a  group 
of  His  disciples,  with  other  casual  followers, 
tramp  leisurely  between  the  yellowing  fields. 
Before  them  is  the  luxuriant  and  luxurious 
city,  for  Jericho  was  at  that  time  both  luxu- 
riant and  luxurious.  Herod  had  a  winter 
palace  there.  When  the  wealthy  citizen  of 
Jerusalem  desired  relief  from  the  rigors  of 
his  relatively  mild  winter,  he  found  his  Flor- 
ida down  in  that  wonderful  valley,  scarce  a 

58 


BEECHER 


day's  walk  from  his  home.  One  more  item 
completes  the  picture.  There  by  the  roadside 
are  two  dark-brown  lumps,  two  blind  beggars 
sitting  there  as  their  kind  still  do  in  Syria, 
each  covered  with  that  coarse,  dark,  outer 
garment,  Avhich  served  them  both  as  a  shelter 
by  day,  alike  from  the  sun  and  the  rain,  and 
as  covering  at  night  when  they  slept.  They 
are  asleep,  perhaps;  at  all  events,  they  are 
motionless. 

AVe  are  interested  to  look  beneath  one  of 
those  dark  cloaks.  Whatever  may  have  been 
true  of  his  companion,  Bartimseus  was,  ac- 
cording to  the  accounts,  a  man  of  intelligence 
and  well  informed.  For  three  years  past  he 
had  heard  much  concerning  Jesus,  whose  mis- 
sion had  so  aroused  the  whole  country ;  and  he 
had  formed  his  opinions  concerning  Jesus. 
Others  were  in  doubt,  but  the  blind  man  had 
thought  things  through,  and  was  not  in  doubt. 
The  narrative  says  that  when  they  told  him 
that  the  passer-by  was  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  he 
cried  out  not  ' '  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  have  mercy 
on  me,"  but  ''Jesus,  thou  son  of  David,  have 
mercy";  ''Lord,  have  mercy";  "Rabboni, 
that  I  may  receive  my  sight."  He  had  been 
thinking,  and  had  reached  conclusions.  He 
held  the  opinion  that  Jesus  was  the  promised 
son  of  David,  and  was  Lord,  and  Rabboni. 

It  does  not  appear  that  this  intelligent,  well- 
informed  man  had  faith.  Jesus  had  been 
near  Jericho  for  weeks,  and  any  day,  appar- 

59 


MODERN     SERMONS 


ently,  Bartim^eus  might  have  procured  some 
one  to  lead  him  to  the  Master's  presence  that 
he  might  ask  for  healing,  and  he  had  not 
done  it.  The  world  is  full  of  the  spiritually- 
blind  who  prefer  not  to  see,  or  who  at  least 
will  not  take  the  trouble  to  obtain  sight  for 
the  asking.  In  the  circumstances  Bartimaeus 
was  responsible  for  being  blind,  and  so  are 
hosts  of  others. 

The  men  who  were  around  Jesus,  conversing 
about  their  day's  excursion  and  about  the 
things  of  the  kingdom,  were,  some  of  them, 
men  w^ho  had  often  witnessed  healings  by  Him. 
Some  of  them  had  doubtless  themselves  been 
healed  by  Him.  One  would  think  that  they 
might  have  called  His  attention  to  the  blind 
men,  or  the  attention  of  the  blind  men  to 
Him;  but  apparently  they  did  not  until  the 
blind  men  began  to  shout.  I  am  surprized  at 
their  heartless  indifference,  and  I  become  in- 
dignant over  it,  until  I  consider  how  common 
just  such  indifference  is  in  spiritual  affairs. 
The  more  we  think  of  it  the  more  astonishing 
it  is — the  carelessness  toward  those  who  need 
healing  on  the  part  of  those  who  have  ex- 
perienced the  divine  power  to  heal. 

Have  we  looked  at  this  first  picture  till  we 
see  its  significance — the  imposing,  opulent 
city,  the  road  to  it  through  the  yellow  grain- 
fields  in  the  hot,  fertile  valley,  Jesus  and  His 
followers  talking  among  themselves  as  they 
rerturn    from   the    day's   excursion,    the    two 

60 


BEECHER 


broAvn  lumps  by  the  wayside?  Then  let  the 
picture  dissolve,  and  another  take  its  place 

Call  this  second  picture  The  Outcry  on  the 
Street.  One  of  the  brown  lumps  has  been 
recalled  to  animation  by  the  noise  of  those 
passing.  He  has  raised  his  head  and  asked 
who  it  is  that  is  going  by.  He  has  received 
the  reply  that  it  is  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  Then, 
suddenly,  what  he  has  long  known  concerning 
Jesus  has  become  real  to  him.  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth !  Why,  He  is  the  great  healer.  He  gives 
sight  to  the  blind;  why  not  to  me?  He  can 
not  tell  whether  Jesus  is  in  the  front  of  the 
crowd,  or  in  the  midst  of  it,  or  in  the  rear; 
but  he  is  afraid  that  Jesus  may  get  beyond 
the  reach  of  his  voice.  So  he  cries  out.  It  is 
no  gentle,  polite  request,  but  an  outcry.  His 
companion  joins  him.  The  disciples  rebuke 
them.  Their  howling  is  not  polite  to  the 
Master,  and  must  be  stopt.  The  beggars  per- 
sist. The  agony  of  an  awakened  desire  for 
sight  is  upon  them,  and  will  not  be  silenced. 
The  result  is  a  tumult  on  the  public  highway. 

In  this  case,  and  in  the  analogous  cases 
that  arise,  observe  how  apt  indifference  is  to 
degenerate  into  opposition.  These  followers 
of  the  Master,  who  ought  to  have  been  in- 
terested in  the  blind  men  and  were  not  in- 
terested, are  now  actually  opposing  the  blind 
men's  efforts  to  obtain  help  from  Jesus.  In- 
difference is  a  dangerous  thing,  both  in  itself 
and  in  its  possible  transformations. 

61 


MODERN     SERMONS 


But  really,  were  not  the  disciples  right  in 
trying  to  silence  the  outcry  on  the  public 
road?  And  in  times  of  religious  excitement, 
or  when  unusual  religious  methods  are  used, 
are  not  the  men  correct  who  object  to  every- 
thing which  violates  the  ordinary  proprieties 
of  life?  It  was  not  to  the  credit  of  Jesus  to 
have  men  yelling  after  him  publicly.  It  was 
annoying.  It  might  bring  the  police.  Should 
not  religious  activities  be  always  in  the 
strictest  sense  orderly? 

Well,  if  the  blind  men  had  been  so  reason- 
able as  to  go  to  find  Jesus,  in  order  to  be 
healed,  there  would  have  been  no  outcry. 
There  need  have  been  none  if  the  disciples 
had  been  as  thoughtful  as  they  ought,  in 
bringing  Jesus  and  the  blind  men  together. 
If  the  men  and  women  who  need  spiritual  help 
were  so  reasonable  as  always  to  seek  the  help 
they  need,  or  if  Christ's  disciples  were  per- 
petually faithful  in  carrying  help  to  those 
who  need  it,  then  there  would  be  no  occasion 
for  the  efforts  that  operate  by  sensation  and 
shock.  But  better,  immensely  better,  even 
the  tumult  on  the  street  than  that  the  blind 
should  utterly  fail  to  come  into  contact  with 
the  Healer. 

This  picture  dissolves  in  its  turn,  and  a 
third  takes  its  place :  The  Blind  Man  Spring- 
ing to  his  Feet.  This  picture  the  King  James 
translators  failed  to  see;  but  it  appears  in 
the  revised  versions,  in  Mark,  in  the  words: 

62 


BEECHER 


"And  he,  casting  away  his  garment,  sprang 
up,  and  came  to  Jesus." 

It  is  commonly  believed  that  in  cases  of 
chronic  blindness  the  other  senses  are  quick- 
ened, so  that  there  is  partial  compensation 
for  the  loss  of  sight.  In  the  midst  of  the 
tangle  of  noises,  the  persistent  outcry  and  the 
efforts  to  stop  it,  the  quick  ear  of  the  blind 
man  caught  the  sound  of  an  arrested  footfall, 
and  he  said  to  himself,  I  wonder  if  that  is 
the  footfall  of  the  Master.  Other  footsteps 
also  ceased,  and  he  said  to  himself,  Yes,  that 
must  be  He;  the  others  stop  when  He  stops. 
Then  through  the  sudden  silence  he  hears  the 
words,  ''Call  ye  him,"  and  he  says  again  to 
himself,  That  must  be  the  wonderful  voice  of 
Jesus.  At  once  those  who  have  been  rebuking 
him  for  crying  out  change  their  tone,  and  say : 
''Be  of  good  cheer;  rise,  he  calleth  thee." 
The  blind  man  is  sure  that  the  arrested  foot- 
fall and  the  voice  are  those  of  the  Master. 
He  springs  to  his  feet,  throwing  off  in  the 
act  that  brown  outer  garment  of  his,  and 
bends  forward,  staggering,  through  the  dark- 
ness, in  the  direction  of  the  voice  he  has  heard. 

This  is  the  third  picture — Bartimagus 
springing  up  from  beside  his  companion, 
throwing  off  his  outer  garment,  and  eagerly 
stepping  toward  the  Jesus  whom  he  can  not 
see.  It  is  the  most  important  of  the  four 
pictures.  The  artists  who  wrote  the  Gospels 
accent  it  by  additional  lines. 

63 


MODERN     SERMONS 


They  say  that  Jesus  "stood  still."  He  did 
not  go  one  step  farther  away  from  the  poor 
soul  that  felt  its  need  of  him.  That  is  the 
way  with  our  blessed  Redeemer. 

Matthew  says  that  Jesus  called  the  blind 
men;  according  to  Mark  and  Luke,  He  did 
this  by  having  His  disciples  do  the  calling. 
He  was  not  dependent  on  them  for  this  help. 
He  could  have  healed  the  men  where  they 
were.  He  could  have  gone  to  them.  He 
could  have  drawn  them  to  Himself  by  some 
occult  power.  But  He  prefers  to  work 
through  His  disciples.  He  wants  to  honor  His 
disciples  by  taking  them  into  partnership. 
He  prefers  that  we  have  our  share  in  His 
mighty  deeds. 

When  the  disciples  heard  the  voice  of  the 
command  of  Jesus,  those  who  had  at  first 
been  indifferent,  and  had  afterward  been  op- 
posed, were  affected  by  a  change.  They  took 
up  the  invitation  and  extended  it.  What  a 
typical  case  this  was.  How  often  it  is  re- 
peated in  the  case  of  disciples  awakened  by 
hearing  the  voice  of  the  Lord. 

But  such  things  as  these  are  background 
helping  to  set  forth  in  relief  the  ngure  of 
the  blind  man.  Note  his  eagerness.  He  does 
not  rise  with  caution,  as  becomes  a  blind  man ; 
he  springs  up.  Away  goes  the  brown  cloak. 
Ordinarily  he  would  have  been  very  careful 
of  that.  Very  likely  it  was  the  most  valuable 
property  he  had.     Besides,  it  was  his  best 

64 


BEECHER 


friend.  It  had  protected  him  from  storms, 
and  kept  him  warm  at  night,  and  endeared 
itself  to  him^by  a  thousand  associations.  But 
he  gives  no  attention  to  it  now.  He  does  not 
keep  it  on  him,  for  it  might  impede  his  move- 
ments. He  does  not  wait  to  fold  it  and 
smooth  it  and  lay  it  over  his  arm.  In  his 
eagerness  he  frees  his  arms  from  it,  and  lets 
it  fall  away  from  him,  as  he  leans  forward 
into  what  is  to  him  utter  darkness,  toward 
where  he  thinks  that  Jesus  is. 

Of  course,  the  fourth  picture  is  that  of 
The  Act  of  Healing.  Willing  hands  guide 
the  groping  blind  men  to  where  the  Savior 
stands.  In  a  moment  Bartimceus  hears  again 
the  sweet  voice  of  Jesus,  now  close  to  his  ear, 
saying :  ' '  What  will  ye  that  I  should  do  unto 
you  ? ' '  Who  can  'doubt  that  at  these  words 
the  blind  men  took  some  lowly  posture,  with 
sightless  hopeful  faces  turned  upward  ?  They 
make  their  reply,  asking  that  their  ' '  eyes  may 
be  opened."  In  another  instant  Bartimaeus 
feels  a  touch  upon  his  eyelids,  and  once  more 
hears  Jesus  speaking :  ' '  Go  thy  way,  thy  faith 
hath  made  thee  whole."  ''And  straightway" 
he  found  himself  looking  up  into  the  face  of 
the  Lord  who  had  given  him  his  sight.  As 
Jesus  looks  into  his  face  He  sees  that  the 
glad  expression  there  indicates  devotion  as 
well  as  gratitude ;  and  Jesus  does  not  need  to 
be  told  that  here  is  one  more  follower  who 
will  be  true  even  unto  death.     This  is  the 

1—5  65 


MODERN     SERMONS 


fourth  picture,  this  and  with  it  the  eager 
throng  of  people  who  join  with  the  blind  men 
in  giving  praise  to  God, 

Have  these  pictures  any  message  for  us 
modern  men  and  women? 

In  this,  as  often  in  His  miracles,  Jesus  is 
represented  as  saying  to  the  beneficiary,  ' '  Thy 
faith  hath  made  thee  whole. ' '  There  is  scarce- 
ly an  aspect  of  faith,  either  as  an  experience 
or  as  a  doctrine,  which  might  not  be  illus- 
trated by  the  details  given  in  these  accounts. 
Let  us  notice  how  they  illustrate  just  one  as- 
pect of  faith.  In  the  circumstances  was  the 
faith  of  Bartimaeus,  as  depicted  in  the  record, 
a  reasonable  faith? 

It  was  a  faith  preceded  by  knowledge.  As 
we  have  already  seen,  Bartimaeus  had  re- 
ceived information  concerning  Jesus,  and  had 
thought  it  over,  and  had  formed  opinions. 
But  these  opinions  were  not  of  the  nature  of 
faith.  We  human  persons  hold  a  good  many 
opinions  which  we  suffer  to  lie  packed  away  in 
our  mental  storerooms,  never  using  them  as 
a  part  of  our  practical  stock  in  trade.  So  far 
as  appears,  the  first  stirrings  of  faith  in  Bar- 
timaeus began  when  he  suddenly  became  aware 
that  Jesus  was  present.  His  crying  out  for 
mercy  was  the  fruit  of  his  faith.  What  had 
till  then  been  an  opinion  in  his  mind  now  took 
on  a  new  moral  character;  it  became  faith. 
How  strong  it  was  as  faith  we  have  no  means 
of  knowing.     How  large  a  degree  of  expect- 


66 


BEECHER 


ancy  there  was  in  it  we  can  not  tell.  But 
w^hat  had  thus  far  been  mere  knowledge  now 
exprest  itself  in  the  form  of  emotion,  and 
will,  and  self-committal.  The  blind  man  was 
seized  with  a  longing  for  sight;  he  has  long 
held  the  opinion  that  he  might  obtain  sight 
from  Jesus;  heretofore  the  opinion  has  been 
negative,  but  now  it  becomes  positive ;  it  leads 
him  to  do  something.  He  calls  out,  "Son  of 
David,  have  compassion  on  me." 

In  his  case  the  development  of  faith  was 
rapid.  When  he  heard  the  voice  of  Jesus 
saying,  "Call  ye  him,"  his  faith  became  an 
imperative  call  to  action.  Faith  took  posses- 
sion of  him  then.  He  sprang  to  his  feet,  threw 
off  his  cloak,  and  rushed  gropingly  toward 
the  Jesus  whom  he  could  not  see.  Was  this 
reasonable  conduct  on  his  part?  Faith  is 
reasonable  when  it  is  reasonably  grounded  in 
evidence ;  was  his  faith  so  grounded  ? 

He  had  very  much  less  evidence  than  he 
supposably  might  have  had.  He  had,  for  ex- 
ample, less  evidence  than  the  persons  around 
him  had.  They  could  see,  and  he  could  not. 
And  even  if  he  could  have  seen,  how  should 
he  know  Jesus  the  healer,  he  having  never 
met  Him  before?  How  should  he  know  but 
that  these  persons  who  said  it  was  Jesus  were 
fooling,  or  were  mistaken?  In  the  circum- 
stances, would  it  not  have  been  wise  for  him 
to  have  been  more  cautious?  Ought  he  not 
to  have  been  more  reticent?     Should  he  not, 

67 


MODERN     SERMONS 


at  least,  have  waited,  taking  time  to  test  the 
evidence  ? 

At  once  we  see  that  his  case  was  like  that 
of  many  intelligent  persons  in  the  skeptical 
age  in  which  we  live.  The  religion  of  Christ 
makes  its  claims  upon  them  for  present,  eager, 
whole-hearted  discipleship.  But  they  have 
less  evidence  of  the  validity  of  these  claims 
than  they  might  supposably  have.  They  have 
not  had  experiences  like  those  of  some  re- 
ligious people.  Their  education  has  been  such 
that  their  minds  are  alive  to  the  difficulties 
that  have  beset  thought  from  the  time  when 
men  first  began  to  think.  They  are  conscious 
of  needing  what  Christianity  professes  to  be 
able  to  offer;  but  in  the  circumstances,  is  it 
reasonable  for  them  to  accept  the  offer?  Is 
it  not  wiser  to  let  the  present  opportunity 
pass,  and  take  time  to  resolve  doubts,  and  ac- 
cumulate data? 

If  in  any  case  the  existing  data  are  ac- 
tually insufficient  to  justify  a  decision,  that 
case  may  stand  by  itself.  In  the  case  of  Bar- 
timasus  and  of  many  others,  the  data  are  not 
really  insufficient.  Bartimasus  could  have 
imagined  evidence  very  much  more  extended 
and  convincing  than  that  which  he  possest; 
but  the  evidence  which  he  possest  was  suffi- 
cient to  justify  action.  He  would  have  been 
unreasonable  if  he  had  not  acted.  He  would 
have  been  unreasonable  if  he  had  not  acted 
promptly  and  eagerly.     Once  aware  of  the 

68 


BEECHER 


opportunity,  it  would  have  been  foolish  for 
him  to  let  the  opportunity  pass.  In  cases 
of  conduct  the  question  is  not  whether 
the  evidence  is  technically  complete,  but 
whether  it  is  practically  adequate.  The  ques- 
tion is  not  whether  the  evidence  before  me 
includes  all  imaginable  data ;  it  is  not  whether 
I  possess  more  or  less  evidence  than  some 
other  person  possesses;  it  is  whether  the  case 
as  it  stands  justifies  my  acting.  The  case  as 
it  stood  justified  Bartimsus  in  the  eager  de- 
cision he  made,  and  the  case  as  it  stands  would 
justify  many  a  hesitating  person  in  making 
an  eager  and  firm  decision  in  favor  of  the 
claims  of  Christ  upon  him. 

When  BartimaBus  made  his  decision,  the 
evidence  at  once  began  to  accumulate.  Fuller 
proof  came  with  obedience,  and  his  faith 
grew  strong  by  exercise.  Whatever  reason  he 
had  for  doubt  vanished  as  they  guided  him  to 
the  presence  of  Jesus,  and  he  heard  the  voice 
of  Jesus  close  to  his  ear,  and  felt  the  touch  of 
Jesus,  and  then  looked  up  with  seeing  eyes 
into  the  eyes  of  his  Benefactor.  There  was 
no  further  room  for  doubt  then. 

No;  Bartim^eus  springing  forward  into  the 
dark  is  a  type  of  conduct  that  is  not  unrea- 
sonable. It  was  wise  for  him  to  act  when  he 
found  the  evidence  sufficient,  no  matter  how 
incomplete.  Taking  action  then,  reenforce- 
ments  came  in  for  the  evidence,  making  for 
its    completeness;    if   he   had   not   acted,   he 

69 


MODERN     SERMONS 


would  have  missed  these  reenf  orcements.  And 
there  have  been  millions  who  have  come  out 
for  Christ,  in  spite  of  hindering  doubts  and 
difficulties,  whose  experience  has  been  like 
that  of  Bartimseus.  The  reenforcements  have 
not  perhaps  come  in  so  rapidly  as  in  his  case. 
With  them  the  triumphs  of  faith  over  doubt 
have  required  more  time.  But  the  triumphs 
have  come.  They  have  found  by  experience 
that  Jesus  taught  no  false  pedagogy  when  He 
said:  "If  any  man  willeth  to  do  his  will,  he 
shall  know  of  the  doctrine." 


70 


BENNETT 
THE  INSPIRED  WORD 


71 


WILLIAM  HENRY  BENNETT 

Congregational  minister  and  professor 
of  Old  Testament  language  and  literature 
at  New  College  since  1888  and  Hackney 
College,  London,  since  1891;  born  Lon- 
don, May  22,  1855;  educated  Philo- 
logical School;  City  of  London  School 
(Dr.  E.  A.  Abbott,  headmaster);  Owen's 
College  and  Lancashire  College,  Man- 
chester; St.  John's  College,  Cambridge; 
M.A.,  London,  1876;  first  class  theologi- 
cal tripos,  Cambridge,  1882;  fellow  St. 
John 's  College,  Cambridge,  1885 ;  Litt.D., 
Cambridge ;  D.D.,  Aberdeen,  1902 ;  taught 
in  Rotherham  College,  1884-88 ;  author  of 
*' Joshua,"  '^ Hebrew  Text  in  Sacred 
Books  of  0.  T.,"  ^'Chronicles"  in  '' Ex- 
positor's Bible,"  *' General  Epistles," 
** Genesis  and  Exodus"  in  ''Century 
Bible,"  "Religion  of  the  Post-Exilic 
Prophets,"  "Life  of  Christ  According 
to  St.  Mark,"  etc. 


72 


THE  INSPIRED  WORD 
Prof.  W.  H.  Bennett,  D.D.,  Litt.D. 

''Thy  word  is  a  lamp  unto  my  feet  and  a  light  unto 
my  path."— Fsalm  119  :  105. 

WHEN  this  verse  was  written  ''thy 
word,"  the  Word,  of  God,  was  not 
meant  to  describe  the  Bible.  Indeed, 
it  could  not  mean  the  Bible,  because  tht  Bible 
did  not  then  exist.  The  Psalmist  possest  part 
of  the  Old  Testament,  but  only  part ;  he  knew 
nothing  of  the  most  precious  portion  of  the 
Scriptures,  the  New  Testament. 

Moreover,  the  Bible  tells  us  often,  plainly, 
and  with  great  emphasis  that  the  Word  of 
God  is  something  much  beyond  and  above  the 
written  records  of  Revelation,  something  far 
too  wonderful,  vast  and  manifold  to  be  con- 
tained in  a  small  collection  of  books.  God 
speaks  to  us  through  nature;  that  is  a  part 
of  His  Word.  "By  the  word  of  the  Lord 
were  the  heavens  made."  "He  sendeth  out 
his  commandment  upon  earth;  his  word 
runneth  very  swiftly;  he  giveth  snow  like 
wool;  he  scattereth  the  hoar  frost  like  ashes; 
he  casteth  forth  his  ice  like  morsels.  Who 
can  stand  before  his  cold?  He  sendeth  out 
his  word  and  melteth  them."  The  Scrip- 
tures send  us  for  instruction  to  the  ant  and 

73 


MODERN     SERMONS 


the  lilies  of  the  field.  ''The  heavens  declare 
the  glory  of  God  and  the  firmament  showeth 
His  handiwork," 

There  is  a  word  of  God  in  handicraft,  in 
literature,  in  music  and  in  art.  We  are  told 
that  the  Lord  filled  the  artizans  who  wrought 
the  furniture  of  the  tabernacle  with  the  Spirit 
of  God  that  they  might  work  skilfully  in  gold 
and  silver  and  carpenter's  work  and  mason's 
work.  Isaiah  tells  us  that  the  intelligence  and 
knowledge  by  which  the  farmer  knows  how 
to  plow  and  thrash  and  grind  come  from  the 
Lord  of  Hosts.  There  may  be  inspired  masons 
and  carpenters  and  farmers,  as  well  as  in- 
spired preachers. 

There  was  a  word  of  God  before  the  Bible 
and  after  the  Bible.  The  Word  of  God  came 
to  patriarchs  and  prophets  long  before  there 
were  any  written  Scriptures;  the  Word  of 
God  was  uttered  by  Jesus  and  His  apostles 
long  before  there  was  any  New  Testament. 
Nor  did  God  become  dumb  when  the  last  sen- 
tence of  the  Bible  was  finished.  There  is  a 
word  of  God  spoken  to  us  to-day  by  living 
lips,  and  written  for  us  by  the  pens  of  living 
men. 

There  is  a  word  of  God  spoken  to  our  hearts, 
the  whisper  of  conscience,  the  prompting  to 
repentance,  the  arousing  of  faith,  the  kin- 
dling of  enthusiasm.  Herein  God  speaks  to  us. 

Again,  in  the  Fourth  Gospel  and  the  Apoca- 
lypse, our  Lord  Himself  is  spoken  of  as  *Hhe 

74 


BENNETT 


Word,"  and  "the  Word  of  God,"  and  Christ 
as  "all  and  in  all." 

Therefore,  the  Word  of  God,  the  utterances 
of  the  Infinite  and  Eternal,  can  not  be  limited 
to  the  contents  of  a  single  volume.  We  are 
told  concerning  the  earthly  life  of  our  Lord 
that  if  a  record  had  been  made  of  all  His 
words  and  deeds,  the  world  itself  would  not 
contain  the  books  that  should  be  written. 
How  much  less  can  one  book  record  every 
word  of  God,  all  that  God  utters  through  end- 
less ages  by  countless  voices. 

Nevertheless,  we  may  rightly  apply  our 
text  to  the  Bible ;  it  is  a  lamp  to  our  feet,  and 
a  light  to  our  path.  Practically,  the  Bible  is 
the  Word  of  God  for  most  of  us  in  a  very 
special  sense ;  it  is  the  Word  of  God  of  which 
we  are  most  sure  and  with  which  we  are  most 
familiar ;  it  is  by  the  Bible  that  we  test,  inter- 
pret, and  recognize  the  Word  of  God  when 
it  comes  to  us  in  other  ways.  But  it  is  also 
true  that  it  is  only  by  the  living  Word,  the 
spirit  of  Christ  in  our  hearts,  that  we  can 
understand  and  profit  by  the  written  Word, 
the  Scriptures. 

It  should  not  be  necessary  to  praise  the 
Bible;  we  acknowledge  our  debt  for  what  it 
has  taught  us  of  the  way  of  salvation,  but 
to  praise  the  Bible  seems  impertinent;  it  is 
like  paying  compliments  to  God.  Apart  from 
any  doctrine  of  inspiration,  the  Bible  can 
hold  its  own  by  its  power  and  worth. 

75 


MODERN     SERMONS 


When  we  remember  the  teaching  which  the 
Bible  records,  and  the  teaching  which  it  has 
inspired,  the  characters  of  noble  men  which 
it  depicts,  and  the  characters  of  the  men  whom 
it  has  shaped  and  molded,  the  history  which 
the  Bible  records,  the  place  it  fills  in  history 
and  the  history  it  has  made — when  we  remem- 
ber these  things,  it  seems  monstrous  and  in- 
credible that  any  one  should  doubt  that  this 
book,  above  all  others,  is  the  volume  we  should 
read,  mark,  learn  and  inwardly  digest. 

If  only  men  will  read  and  study  the  Bible 
in  a  docile,  humble  and  reasonable  spirit,  we 
can  safely  leave  the  Bible  to  take  care  of  it- 
self. It  is  not  for  the  most  part  the  contents 
of  the  sacred  Scriptures  which  try  our  faith; 
difficulties  and  stumbling-blocks  arise  chiefly 
from  doctrines  which  have  been  taught  about 
the  Bible. 

Let  us  consider  some  difficulties  connected 
with  the  Bible  and  what  is  the  practical  mean- 
ing and  proof  of  inspiration. 

The  difficulties  of  which  I  wish  to  speak 
are  three,  and  concern  (a)  the  authorship  of 
the  books;  (b)  the  historicity  of  the  narra- 
tives; (c)  the  moral  and  spiritual  teaching. 

It  used  to  be  supposed  that  we  knew 
for  certain  who  wrote  most  of  the  books  of 
the  Bible.  The  names  we  use  as  titles,  Joshua, 
Isaiah,  John,  Peter,  etc.,  were  believed  to  be 
the  names  of  the  authors  of  these  books;  and 
this  belief  was  supposed  to  rest  on  conclusive 

76 


BENNETT 


evidence.  The  distinguished  position  of  pa- 
triarchs, prophets,  and  apostles  was  supposed 
to  prove  that  they  were  inspired.  A  book 
belonged  to  the  Word  of  God  because  it  was 
written  by  Moses  or  Isaiah  or  John. 

All  these  suppositions  are  now  challenged, 
even  by  many  devout  and  earnest  Christians. 
We  are  told  that  much  of  the  Pentateuch  was 
not  written  by  Moses;  that  much  of  the  book 
of  Isaiah  was  not  written  by  Isaiah;  we  are 
uncertain  about  the  authorship  of  other  books. 

This,  then,  is  the  difficulty:  if  we  believed 
a  passage  to  be  inspired  because  it  was  writ- 
ten by  Moses  or  John,  can  we  still  find  help 
and  comfort  from  it  if  we  are  uncertain  as 
to  its  authorship? 

As  to  the  historicity  of  the  narratives,  it 
would  be  easy  and  convenient  if  we  could  be 
sure  that  every  story  in  the  Bible  was  a  per- 
fectly accurate  account  of  something  that  ac- 
tually happened  to  the  people  of  whom  it  is 
told.  But  now  Christians  are  not  agreed  on 
this  matter.  There  are  many  stories  or  parts 
of  stories  which  are  said  to  be  parables  or 
allegories  or  symbolic  narratives,  or  in  other 
ways  not  history.  ^'Did  God,"  we  are  asked, 
''really  build  up  Eve  out  of  a  rib  taken  from 
Adam's  side?  Did  the  great  fish  really  swal- 
low Jonah?" 

Then  as  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  teaching, 
the  difficulty  here  is  that  there  are  commands 
in  parts  of  the  Bible  which  Christians  do  not 

77 


MODERN     SERMONS 


feel  to  be  binding  on  them;  there  is  teaching 
which  does  not  seem  to  be  according  to  the 
mind  of  Christ.  For  instance,  we  are  told 
that  God  commanded  Joshua  to  massacre  the 
Canaanites,  men,  women  and  children. 

Now  these  three  difficulties  are  real  and 
permanent  In  a  sense,  we  can  not  hope  to 
get  rid  of  them.  Humanly  speaking,  we  shall 
never  know  who  wrote  much  of  the  Bible ;  we 
shall  never  prove  conclusively  that  every  story 
is  an  accurate  account  of  a  real  event;  or 
that  every  piece  of  teaching  is  divine. 

But  again,  these  difficulties  are  not  new; 
they  have  existed  ever  since  there  was  a  Bible 
or  a  part  of  a  Bible.  The  Christian  Church 
grew  up  in  the  face  of  them,  and  has  con- 
tinued and  flourished  in  spite  of  them.  For 
very  many  centuries  no  one  has  known  who 
wrote  Kings  or  Chronicles,  or  many  of  the 
Psalms,  or  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews;  and 
yet  they  have  been  used  as  parts  of  the  Bible. 
Men  have  always  been  a  little  uncertain  as  to 
where  history  ended  and  parable  began.  And 
as  to  teaching,  have  we  not  always  been  told 
that  much  of  the  Old  Testament  must  be  cor- 
rected by  the  teaching  of  Christ?  Did  not 
our  Lord  Himself  say  of  some  of  the  teach- 
ing of  the  Hebrew  scriptures,  '^It  was  said 
unto  you  by  them  of  old  time,  .  .  .  but 
I  say  unto  you" — something  quite  different. 
Our  difficulties  are  old  troubles  on  a  larger 
scale. 


78 


BENNETT 


Let  us  look  at  this  question  of  authorship. 
This  need  not  distress  us.  Men  thought  that 
a  book  was  divine  because  Moses  wrote  it. 
But  why?  Why  should  a  book  be  divine  be- 
cause Moses  wrote  it?  How  could  you  prove 
that  to  any  one  who  challenged  the  proposi- 
tion? If  we  could  be  sure  that  Moses  wrote 
every  word  of  the  Pentateuch,  we  might  get 
rid  of  one  difficulty,  but  we  should  be  plunged 
into  many  others.  How  did  he  come  to  write 
the  account  of  his  own  death  and  burial,  with 
laudatory  notices  of  his  work  and  character? 

God  was  not  obliged  to  speak  by  distin- 
guished men  whose  names  are  remembered; 
He  was  just  as  well  able  to  speak  by  obscure 
men  whose  names  have  been  forgotten.  If 
the  Church  has  found  inspiration  for  centu- 
ries in  anonymous  books,  like  Job,  Kings, 
many  Psalms,  and  Hebrews,  we  can  still  profit 
by  other  books,  even  if  we  do  not  know  who 
wrote  them.  This  difficulty  is  only  slight  and 
trivial. 

In  considering  the  historicity  of  the  narra- 
tives, we  have,  I  am  afraid,  to  admit  that 
many  of  the  stories  may  not  be  accurate  ac- 
counts of  actual  events;  and  that  others  may 
not  be  absolutely  accurate,  tho  they  may  be 
substantially  correct.  But  an  intelligent  con- 
sideration of  the  nature  and  purpose  of  the 
Bible  enables  us  to  meet  this  difficulty. 

The  special  object  of  the  Bible  is  to  save 
men's  souls,  not  to  provide  them  with  facts 

79 


MODERN     SERMONS 


about  ancient  history.  The  stories  are  told,  in 
the  first  place  and  above  all  else,  to  move  ns 
to  righteousness,  faith  and  love.  Are  we  not 
more  easily  moved  in  that  way  by  parables 
and  poetry  than  by  scientifically  accurate 
treatises  on  systematic  theology?  Our  Lord 
taught  in  parables,  and  with  that  great  ex- 
ample before  us,  we  can  believe  that  in  other 
Biblical  narratives  God  teaches  us  by  para- 
bles. 

The  men  and  women  of  the  Bible  are  set 
before  us  by  way  of  example  and  warning; 
and  the  accounts  of  them  are  still  examples 
and  warnings,  even  if  they  are  not  absolutely 
accurate  in  every  detail.  "Pilgrim's  Prog- 
ress" instructs  and  edifies  us,  and  is  a  means 
of  grace,  tho  it  is  not  history  at  all.  It  has 
done  more  for  the  spiritual  life  than  scores  of 
biographies  of  eminent  divines. 

Up  to  a  certain  point,  therefore,  we  need 
not  ask  whether  the  narratives  are  history  or 
not.  As  in  the  Bible,  as  inspired,  they  are 
not  intended  to  fill  our  minds  with  facts,  but 
to  incline  our  conscience  and  wills  to  right- 
eousness; to  draw  our  souls  to  God;  to  make 
us  good,  kind,  loving,  just,  trustful  and  de- 
vout. 

But  you  may  say  that  some  of  these  stories 
will  not  help  you  in  your  religious  life  unless 
they  are  correct  accounts  of  what  actually 
happened.  True,  and  here  the  Bible  provides 
what  you  ask  for.     There  is  much  genuine 

80 


BENNETT 


history  in  the  Bible,  enough  to  provide  for 
the  practical  needs  of  our  faith.  The  great 
facts  of  the  history  of  Israel,  of  the  life  of 
Christ,  of  the  foundations  of  the  Church,  are 
clearly  established  by  historical  narratives. 
These  are  like  other  history,  and  their  mean- 
ing and  truth  can  be  known  by  the  same 
scientific  methods  as  those  of  other  history. 
They  can  be  proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  any 
intelligent,  impartial  inquirer,  and  not  only 
to  that  of  Christians  holding  a  special  theory 
of  inspiration.  Ordinary  histor}^  however 
genuine,  serious  and  honest,  is  never  accurate 
in  every  detail,  and  yet  it  satisfies  practical 
needs.  So  the  history  given  in  the  Bible  suf- 
fices for  our  spiritual  needs,  even  when  it  is 
not  accurate  in  every  detail.  What  difference, 
for  instance,  does  it  make  to  our  knowledge 
of  Christ  as  a  Savior  whether  the  names  of 
the  twelve  apostles  are  given  correctly?  If 
the  great  purpose  of  the  Bible  is  to  provide 
for  our  religious  life,  should  we  expect  God 
to  work  a  series  of  miracles  in  order  that  you 
and  I  may  know  exactly  how  to  spell  the 
names  of  the  apostles?  The  gospels  are  the 
impressions  and  recollections  which  men  had 
of  the  ^Master  whom  they  loved  and  trusted: 
and  a  man's  impression  and  memory  of  his 
Teacher,  Friend  and  Savior  is  far  truer  and 
better  than  a  collection  of  photographs,  short- 
hand writers'  notes,  and  phonographic  rec- 
ords.   A  statesman,  for  example,  has  made  a 

1-6  81 


MODERN     SERMONS 


great  speech ;  a  friend  who  heard  it  may  give 
you  a  better  idea  of  it  in  five  minutes  than 
you  would  get  from  a  word-for-word  report. 
Your  friend's  account  may  be  less  accurate 
in  detail,  and  yet  it  will  be  much  more  true. 
A  photograph  is  correct  in  detail,  it  gives  line 
for  line,  shade  for  shade;  yet  a  pen-and-ink 
sketch  by  a  great  artist  will  give  you  a  much 
truer  portrait,  tho  not  one  line  may  be  exactly 
accurate. 

To  sum  up  on  this  point,  we  admit  that 
many  of  the  Bible  narratives  are  not  accurate 
history,  but  they  are  none  the  less  true.  Some 
are  parables  or  allegories,  true  because  true 
to  human  nature  and  divine  wisdom;  true  as 
** Pilgrim's  Progress"  is  true,  and  as  our 
Lord's  parables  are  true.  Others  are  true  as 
any  history  is  true;  true  in  substance  as  to 
their  leading  facts;  true  in  impression  and 
teaching.  These  narratives,  such  as  they  are, 
have  been  given  by  God  as  a  means  of  grace, 
and  experience  has  shown  their  value. 

Our  third  difficulty  is  that  we  find  teaching 
recorded  in  the  Bible  w^hich  does  not  seem  to 
be  morally  and  spiritually  perfect,  judged  by 
the  standard  of  Christ.  I  lay  stress  on  the 
word  ''recorded";  there  is  much  recorded  in 
the  Bible  which  is  not  put  forth  as  a  perfect 
utterance  of  divine  revelation.  An  author 
may  record  views  which  he  does  not  indorse ; 
and  if,  without  irreverence  and  speaking  very 
loosely,  we  may  call  God  the  author  of  the 

82 


BENNETT 


Bible,  we  may  say  that  in  many  passages  He 
has  recorded  the  faith  of  ancient  times  mere- 
ly for  our  instruction,  without  indorsing  it. 
One  great  use  of  the  Scriptures  is  to  give  us 
the  history  of  revelation,  to  tell  us  how,  step 
by  step,  God  made  Himself  known,  and  how 
men  understood  or  misunderstood  the  revela- 
tion. Therefore,  the  Bible  preserves  for  us 
forms  of  belief  which  were  imperfect.  The 
book  of  Job  spends  several  pages  in  recording 
the  views  of  Job  and  his  friends,  and  then 
at  the  end  God  repudiates  much  that  is  thus 
recorded.  He  tells  the  friends,  "My  servant 
Job  shall  pray  for  you,  for  him  will  I  accept, 
that  I  deal  not  with  you  after  your  folly,  for 
ye  have  not  spoken  of  me  the  thing  that  is 
right,  as  my  servant  Job  hath."  The  New 
Testament  tells  us  clearly,  expressly  and  em- 
phatically that  the  Old  Testament  was  not  a 
perfect  revelation,  but  needed  to  be  inter- 
preted, corrected  and  supplemented  by  the 
teaching  of  Christ. 

Again,  much  of  the  Bible  is  addrest  to 
some  individual  or  group  of  individuals,  to 
Israel,  or  to  some  church  or  society;  we  may 
say  that  some  passage  exprest  God's  will  and 
mind  to  a  particular  society  or  individual  at 
a  particular  time,  and  that  the  words  were 
true  to  them  as  they  were  understood  by  them. 
But  we  can  not  be  sure  that  the  natural  sense 
of  the  words  in  the  English  version  as  we 
should  understand  them  will  be  true  for  us. 

83 


MODERN     SERMONS 


Ideas  need  to  be  translated  as  well  as  words. 
The  same  words  mean  different  things  to  dif- 
ferent people ;  and  no  verse  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment ever  meant  quite  the  same  to  an  ancient 
Israelite  as  it  does  to  us. 

This  third  difficulty  appears  in  its  most 
startling  form  in  words  said  to  have  been 
spoken  by  God  Himself.  Sometimes  we  seem 
to  feel  that  there  is  something  un-Christian, 
so  to  speak,  in  commands  which  God  is  said 
to  have  given.  Yet  our  previous  answers  ap- 
ply here  also;  we  are  not  bound  to  believe 
that  every  statement  is  exact  history ;  and  we 
may  also  consider  that  these  are  cases  where 
we  have  the  record  of  the  imperfect  human 
understanding  of  the  perfect  mind  and  will 
of  God.  We  have  seen  that  it  is  said  that 
God  commanded  Joshua  to  massacre  the  Ca- 
naanites,  men,  women  and  children.  But  as 
a  matter  of  strict  history,  we  have  no  real 
proof  that  Joshua  ever  received  such  a  com- 
mand. The  passages  which  refer  to  this  were 
written  centuries  after  the  time  of  Joshua, 
and  are  a  symbolic  expression  of  the  Israelitish 
sense  of  the  wickedness  of  the  heathen. 

Again,  summing  up:  If  you  find  anything 
in  the  Bible  which  offends  your  moral  and 
spiritual  feeling,  you  may  often  conclude  that 
you  do  not  properly  understand  it ;  that  a  full 
knowledge  of  the  circumstances  under  which 
the  words  were  spoken,  of  the  people  to  whom 
they  were  addrest,  and  of  the  original  mean- 

84 


BENNETT 


ing  of  the  words  themselves,  would  remove 
your  difficulties. 

Thus  I  have  tried  to  explain  why,  if  we 
believe  the  Bible  to  be  inspired,  our  faith  need 
not  be  shaken  by  uncertainty  about  author- 
ship, or  the  historicity  of  narratives,  or  the 
character  of  some  portions  of  the  teaching. 

Let  us  now  ask  what  is  the  practical  mean- 
ing and  proof  of  inspiration ! 

I  say  "practical"  because  I  do  not  try  to 
give  an  adequate  and  exact  statement  of  the 
doctrine  of  inspiration,  according  to  scientific 
dogmatics ;  I  only  attempt  to  explain  its  bear- 
ing on  the  religious  life  of  men  in  general ; 
to  state  some  plain  truths  we  can  all  under- 
stand and  apply. 

I  may  illustrate  what  is  meant  by  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Bible  by  quoting  a  favorite 
remark  of  a  former  teacher  of  mine.  If  any 
one  wanted  to  know  how  he  took  a  passage 
of  Scripture,  he  would  reply,  "I  don't  take 
the  verse,  the  verse  takes  me." 

That  is  the  point  about  inspiration;  it  is 
not  a  question  of  how  we  understand  the 
Bible,  of  our  views  on  revelation ;  not  of  how 
we  take  the  Bible,  but  of  how  the  Bible  takes 
us.  Among  the  many  things  which  may  be 
said  about  inspiration,  this  is  the  most  im- 
portant: when  we  say  that  the  Bible  is  in- 
spired, we  mean  that  if  we  give  it  a  fair 
chance  it  will  influence  and  control  our  lives. 

It  is  inspired  because  it  rouses  our  sense  of 

85 


MODERN     SERMONS 


duty;  it  makes  us  patient,  sympathetic  and 
forgiving;  it  prompts  us  to  comfort  the  suf- 
ferer, to  protect  the  weak,  to  supply  the  wants 
of  the  needy ;  it  quickens  our  conscience,  con- 
vinces us  of  sin,  humbles  us  before  God,  and 
makes  us  feel  our  need  of  forgiveness;  and 
yet  again,  it  inspires  us  with  faith  in  the 
divine  love  and  leads  us  to  the  cross  of  Christ. 

Naturally,  if  a  man  does  not  desire  such 
blessings,  and  is  determined  that  the  Bible 
shall  not  influence  him,  he  may  not  find  in  it 
this  power.  But  if  any  one  honestly  seeks  for 
guidance  and  help,  "he  that  seeketh,  findeth." 

In  saying  what  inspiration  means,  we  have 
also  shown  how  we  may  know  that  the  Bible 
is  inspired.  Such  a  question  answers  itself. 
It  is  like  asking.  How  am  I  to  know  that  the 
sun  gives  light  and  heat?  I  see  and  feel 
them. 

How  do  I  know  that  the  Gospels  are  in- 
spired? Because  I  feel  that  in  them  I  meet 
with  a  perfect  life  which  makes  me  ashamed 
of  myself  and  desirous  of  doing  better;  be- 
cause the  story  of  that  life  makes  me  feel  that 
God  has  drawn  near  to  man  to  help  and  save 
him. 

How  do  I  know  that  the  one  hundred  and 
third  Psalm  is  inspired?  Because  I  feel  that 
in  it  a  man  speaks  to  me  from  his  inmost 
soul,  from  a  real  experience  of  God,  and  he 
helps  me  to  believe  that  God  is  near  to  me 
to  save  and  bless.    And  so  for  other  passages. 

86 


BENNETT 


There  are,  of  course,  parts  of  the  Bible  where 
this  practical  proof  will  not  apply,  or  may  not 
work  for  everybody.  But  take  the  book  as  a 
whole,  make  yourself  familiar  with  the  pas- 
sages that  are  most  helpful  to  you,  and  you 
will  not  doubt  the  presence  and  reality  of  in- 
spiration. 

Do  not  trouble  just  now  about  what  does 
not  appeal  to  you.  There  are  spots  in  the 
sun,  but  we  do  not  deny  ourselves  its  light 
and  warmth;  we  do  not  shut  ourselves  in 
some  dark,  underground  cellar  till  we  have 
solved  the  mystery  of  the  sun-spots  and  found 
out  their  use.  We  need  not  deny  ourselves 
the  grace  of  the  Scriptures  till  we  have  solved 
the  mystery  of  their  difficult  passages.  It 
might  perhaps  be  possible  to  construct  some 
instrument  to  hide  all  the  rest  of  the  sun,  so 
as  only  to  see  the  spots,  and  people  who  saw 
the  sun  only  through  this  instrument  might 
say  that  it  was  all  dark.  Some  people  look  at 
the  Bible  in  that  way.  But  the  spots  on  the 
sun  do  not  destroy  its  reputation  as  a  source 
of  light  and  heat;  nor  yet  is  it  necessary  to 
deny  that  there  are  less  luminous  and  helpful 
parts  of  the  Bible  in  order  to  believe  in  its 
inspiration. 

The  proof  of  inspiration  rests  on  a  foun- 
dation that  is  broad,  strong  and  deep.  It  is 
not  a  mere  matter  of  private  judgment.  There 
is  a  great  cloud  of  witnesses.  For  century 
after    century    countless    myriads    of    many 

87 


MODERN    SERMONS 


races,  nations  and  languages  have  found 
peace,  life  and  salvation  through  the  Bible. 
If  human  testimony  can  prove  anything,  it 
proves  that  the  Bible  is  a  Word  of  God  to 
man. 

Finally,  the  more  reasonable  views  of  mod- 
ern times  have  made  the  influence  of  the  Bible 
more  sure  and  wide  and  strong.  Herein,  as 
in  many  other  of  God's  gifts  to  our  genera- 
tion, we  have  to  thank  Him — 

For  quickened  zeal  in  holy  toil, 
For  love  more  wide  and  tender; 
For  broader  light  on  God's  great  ways, 

For  larger  hope,  for  purer  praise, 
For  fuller  self -surrender. 


BENTON 

THE  FACT,  ETERNITY  AND  CHARACTER 
OF  GOD 


GUY  POTTER  BENTON 

President  of  Miami  University  since 
1902;  born  in  Kenton,  Ohio,  May  26, 
1865;  educated  Ohio  Normal  tjniversity, 
Ohio  Wesleyan  University,  Baker  Uni- 
versity, and  University  of  Wooster 
(A.M.,  B.D.  and  LL.D.) ;  superintendent 
of  schools,  Fort  Scott,  Kan.,  1890-95; 
assistant  state  superintendent  of  public 
instruction,  Kansas,  1895,6;  professor 
of  history  and  sociology.  Baker  Univer- 
sity, 1896-99;  president  of  Upper  Iowa 
University,  1899-1902;  Methodist  Epis- 
copal clergjnuan. 


90 


THE  FACT,  ETERNITY  AND  CHAR- 
ACTER OF  GOD 

Pres.  Guy  Potter  Benton,  D.D.,  LL.D. 

"Holy,  holy,  holy,  Lord   God  Almighty,  tuhich   was, 
and  is,  and  is  to  come." — Eev.  4  :  8. 

THERE  is  longing  in  the  heart  of  man  for 
a  God.  Men  are  wont  to  boast  of  their 
physical  strength,  of  their  military- 
valor.  Men  are  consciously  proud  of  their  in- 
tellectual achievements,  of  their  mental  grasp. 
Yet  tho  a  man  have  the  iron  muscle  of  a  San- 
dow,  tho  he  return  from  his  country's  battle- 
fields honored  with  the  highest  titles  a  brave 
soldier  can  bear,  tho  he  outshine  in  brilliancy 
of  intellect  a  Demosthenes  or  a  Cicero,  tho  he 
be  recognized  by  the  student  world  to  be 
among  the  profoundest  philosophers  of  all  the 
ages,  yea,  even  tho  one  man  seem  symmetrical 
in  perfection  of  physique  and  intellect,  yet 
that  man,  in  all  the  fulness  of  his  powers,  in 
moments  of  solitude,  away  from  the  profusion 
of  men's  praises,  away  from  the  intoxicating 
din  of  popular  applause,  will  stretch  his 
hands  upward  with  yearning  grasp  for  some 
unseen  superior  being  whom  he  himself  can 
reverence  and  adore.  With  all  his  attainments 
there  is  an  inward  craving  for  some  higher 
personality,    in   whom   he   can   confide,    into 

91 


MODERN     SERMONS 


whose  sympathetic  ear  he  can  pour  the  trials 
and  cares  of  his  life. 

Humble  or  exalted  in  station,  savage  or  civ- 
ilized, illiterate  or  cultured,  man,  made  in  the 
image  of  God,  from  the  cradle  to  the  grave, 
in  the  pure  innocence  of  childhood,  in  the 
midst  of  daily  toil,  when  men  render  proud 
homage  at  his  feet,  as  he  wanders  through  the 
lonely  forest  or  over  the  trackless  plains,  in 
his  superstitious  ignorance  or  in  his  polished 
erudition,  has  an  ever-present  longing  in  his 
heart  to  learn,  to  know  of  his  divine  pattern. 
Every  man  longs  to  ascertain  the  origin  of 
his  existence,  to  know  his  Creator. 

Desire  to  worship  is  inherent  in  human  kind, 
and  those  who  profess  to  believe  in  a  creation 
of  chance  are  few  and  usually  insincere. 
Many  people  are  honestly  skeptical  but  few 
are  honestly  atheistic.  Many  sincere  men  ques- 
tion the  positive  state^nents  made  by  the  disci- 
ples of  various  religious  systems,  but  few 
deny  the  existence  of  some  unseen,  unknown 
higher  creative  power.  The  Darwinian  the- 
ory, formerly  regarded  as  an  entirely  wicked 
atheism,  has,  in  late  years,  come  to  be  tol- 
erated and  in  some  cases  discipled  by  those 
adhering  to  orthodox  creeds;  but  after  all,  at 
its  best,  the  doctrine  of  Christian  evolution  is 
only  a  speculative  philosophy  with  many  miss- 
ing links.  The  very  fact  that,  in  embryo,  the 
unborn  child  passes  through  what,  by  long 
stretches   of   imagination,    seem   to   some   to 

92 


BENTON 


be  the  various  stages  of  tadpole,  of 
frog,  of  mouse,  of  ape,  and  the  further 
fact  that  the  new-born  child,  animal  like, 
clings  to  a  stick  of  wood  or  extended 
fingers,  leads  only  to  an  assumption,  and 
the  conclusion  never  can  become  definite 
until  some  antiquarian  or  anthropologist  finds 
in  the  hidden  recesses  of  the  earth,  in  some 
hitherto  undiscovered  cavern,  a  fully  grown, 
fully  developed  biped  that,  once  of  a  lower 
order,  has  at  some  time,  by  some  mark  that 
can  not  be  questioned,  become  transferred  to 
the  existence  of  the  higher  order,  man;  or 
until  some  historian,  seeking  after  truth,  finds 
authentic  record  of  the  fact  that  man  is  an 
outgrowth  of  some  lower  order  of  animal  ex- 
istence. But  then,  even  tho  all  the  miss- 
ing links  in  this  weak  chain  should  be  gath- 
ered up,  the  question  will  naturally  arise  as 
to  why  this  growth  into  higher  orders  of  ex- 
istence has  ceased?  Why  is  not  a  better  and 
nobler  creation  evolved  from  imperfect  man? 
And  with  these  questions  unanswered,  the 
doctrine  of  Christian  evolution  can  never  be 
accepted  by  those  who  seek  secure  founda- 
tion for  their  belief. 

Granting,  however,  for  the  sake  of  argu- 
ment, that  the  doctrine  of  evolution  is  true, 
the  acceptance  of  this  belief  does  not  nec3S- 
sarily  place  the  believer  in  it  among  those 
who  deny  the  existence  of  a  higher  creative 
power.     Indeed,  many  of  our  latter-day  evo- 

93 


MODERN     SERMONS 


lutionists  are  devout  religionists.  Because 
man  may  have  come  into  the  world  as  an  out- 
growth of  a  lower  order  of  life  beginning  with 
the  simple  cell,  this  fact,  if  it  be  a  fact,  does 
not  disprove  a  Creator,  for  even  a  cell  could 
not  have  been  evolved  out  of  nothingness. 
Then,  too,  animal  life  is  only  a  small  part  of 
the  universe;  and  when  we  have  explained 
the  origin  of  life,  the  solid  rocks,  the  everlast- 
ing hills,  and  the  limitless  firmament  cry 
aloud  and  puncture  all  man-made  theories  by 
demanding  to  know  "Whence  came  we?"  A 
thousand  objects  in  the  natural  world  prompt 
the  question  of  origin. 

The  little  child  in  its  mother's  arms,  with 
blinking  eye  wonders  at  the  great  ball  of  fire 
that  beams  down  upon  it  from  the  vaulted 
blue  above,  and  when  the  shadows  of  night 
fall  about  the  little  one,  he  looks  out  through 
the  window-pane  and  claps  his  tiny  hands  in 
ecstasy  of  delight  at  the  myriad  stars  that, 
like  glittering  diamonds,  bespangle  the  cur- 
tain of  the  night.  The  heathen  in  mountain- 
bordered  Tibet,  amid  the  tangled  jungles  of 
the  Kongo,  or  wherever  he  wanders  in  in- 
tellectual gloom  or  spiritual  darkness,  lifts 
his  eyes  up  toward  the  heavens,  and,  like  the 
little  child,  asks  Whence?   Where? 

The  learned  astronomer,  as  he  points  his 
telescope  upward,  beholds  the  great  solar  sys- 
tems and  begins  his  computations.  "Here,'* 
he  says,  "is  the  earth  with  a  diameter  of 

94 


BENTON 


7,918  miles;  yonder,  2^0,000  miles  away,  is 
the  earth's  only  satellite,  the  moon,  king  of 
night,  with  its  eternal  ice-bound  mountains; 
farther  away  still  are  the  major  planets.  Mer- 
cury, Venus,  Mars,  Jupiter,  Saturn  and  the  as- 
teroids ;  and  there  are  the  minor  planets ;  and 
there  away  out  above  and  beyond  all,  92,500,- 
000  miles  from  earth,  with  a  diameter  of  860,- 
000  miles,  is  the  sun,  grand  center  of  this 
system,  rotating  on  its  axis  once  every  twenty- 
five  days,  around  which  all  the  planets  circle 
in  their  orbits  like  the  retinue  of  a  king." 
And  yet  after  all  his  study,  the  astronomer 
with  broader  views  and  greater  knowledge 
and  larger  conceptions,  must  descend  to  the 
level  of  the  little  child  and  the  unlettered 
heathen,  and  marvel  that  so  great  things  have 
existed  through  the  endless  ages,  and  that 
they  continue  to  exist  without  the  loss  of  a 
single  revolution. 

Again,  as  child,  as  pagan,  as  man  behold 
the  flower-carpeted  valleys,  the  forest-clad 
hills,  the  watered  pastures,  the  w^hole  blend- 
ing into  one  great  nature-picture  such  as 
never  dropt  from  the  brush  of  the  greatest 
artist,  they  lift  their  eyes  upward,  and,  look- 
ing out  into  infinite  space,  cry  aloud  once 
more,  Whence?    Where? 

Then  turning  the  mind  to  the  living, 
breathing,  moving  organisms  that  mark  and 
distinguish  the  animal  world,  observing  the 
achievements  of  the  highest  representative  of 


95 


MODERN    SERMONS 


the  class,  man — noting  the  perfect  mechanism 
of  his  being,  and  remembering  that  in  help- 
less infancy  he  enters  the  world  and  that 
often  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye,  and  always 
in  utter  helplessness  to  resist,  he  is  removed 
from  the  stage  of  human  activity,  again  is 
forced  the  solenm  question.  Whence  ?   Where  ? 

Then  appreciative  of  human  weakness  and 
physical  mortality,  there  exists  in  the  soul  of 
every  man,  heathen  or  civilized,  a  longing 
after  some  higher  power,  some  superior  being, 
some  one  faultless,  some  one  immortal.  After 
twilight  shadows  have  fallen,  in  hours  of  ac- 
customed rest,  night-dreams  of  life  after 
death  disturb  the  slumbers;  and  in  sunlit 
hours  of  thoughtful  meditation,  day  visions 
of  a  hoped-for  eternal  home  beyond  the  grave 
flit  before  the  yearning  imagination.  All 
these :  the  existence  of  world  within  world, 
the  star-draped  firmament,  the  wide  expanse 
of  blue  ocean,  the  verdure-drest  earth,  the 
springing  plant,  the  bursting  bud,  the  blos- 
soming tree,  the  golden  fruitage  of  autumn, 
the  miracle  of  animal  life,  the  majesty  and 
mortality  of  man,  the  longing  for  an  eternal 
home,  the  desire  to  know  a  Creator,  and  the 
inclination  to  worship  lead  to  one  indispu- 
table conclusion,  namely,  that  somehow,  some- 
where there  is  a  God. 

The  search  after  the  real  God  has  occupied 
the  time  and  employed  the  mind  of  mankind 
from  the  earliest  history  of  the  human  race 


BENTON 


to  the  present.  Savage  people  have  worshiped 
the  sun  as  the  grand  center  of  all  existence, 
and  look  forward  to  a  roving  life  of  undis- 
turbed pleasure  after  death  in  the  happy- 
hunting-grounds.  The  superstitious  Siamese 
pamper,  adore,  worship  the  white  elephant  as 
divine.  Civilized  nations  have  struggled  and 
studied  to  find  the  true  God  and  the  key  to 
immortality,  and  many  profess  to  have  found 
both.  The  unity  of  God  was  the  central  doc- 
trine of  the  old  Egyptian  belief,  and  they 
gave  to  this  supreme  being  the  very  same  name 
by  which  He  was  known  to  the  Hebrews,  "Nuk 
Pu  Nuk,"  "I  am  that  I  am."  Animal  wor- 
ship was  also  a  part  of  their  religious  sys- 
tem, and  the  mummies  of  their  sacred  bulls 
were  sepultured  in  magnificent  sarcophagi. 

The  Zend-Avesta  was  the  sacred  book  of  an- 
cient Persia,  but  Zoroastrianism  taught  a 
system  of  belief  known-  as  dualism. 

Brahmanism  is  a  religion  of  caste  that  has 
passed  through  various  modifications,  but  still 
teaches  that  conscious  existence  is  always  evil, 
and  encourages  bodily  torture  in  order  to  ex- 
tinguish self,  so  that  the  soul  may  be  reab- 
sorbed into  that  indefinable  something  in  the 
elements  they  call  Brahma. 

Buddhism  still  follows  the  teaching  of  its 
founder,  Buddha,  and,  while  this  system  con- 
demns the  severe  penances  of  the  Brahmans, 
yet  it  commends  poverty  and  retirement  from 
active  life  as  the  best  means  of  getting  rid  of 

1—7  97 


MODERN     SERMONS 


desire  and  attaining  Nirvana;  that  is,  the  re- 
pose of  unconsciousness. 

Confucianism  is  a  religion  opposed  to  ma- 
terial progress,  and  the  nine  classics  of  Con- 
fucius sum  up  the  teachings  of  the  faith  in 
the  one  injunction,  *'Walk  in  the  trodden 
paths." 

Mohammedanism  teaches  that  there  is  one 
God  and  that  Mohammed  was  his  true  prophet. 
It  is  a  sanguinary  religion,  and  its  blood- 
thirsty adherents  believe  that  dying  on  the 
battle-field  they  are  immediately  translated  to 
eternal  paradise. 

The  ancient  Britons  held  dim  faith  in  an 
overruling  power  and  in  a  life  beyond  the 
grave.  The  priestly  Druids  offered  sacrifices 
to  the  one,  and  buried  the  warrior's  spear 
with  him  that  he  might  be  provided  with  the 
other.  Druidism  led  its  bearded  priesthood 
to  a  home  in  the  depths  of  the  forest  amid 
the  revered  oaks  and  with  the  venerated  mis- 
tletoe. 

But  all  these  religions  have  failed  to  sat- 
isfy the  longings  of  the  human  heart,  and 
while  many  followers  of  each  have  held  on 
with  attempted  earnestness  of  belief  because 
of  superstitious  ignorance,  and  lack  of  knowl- 
edge of  a  better  substitute,  yet  death  has  had 
a  horror  for  the  disciples  of  all  these  because 
all  were  man-made,  all  were  human  products. 
There  is  but  one  true  God,  and  that  is  the 
God  of  Abraham,  of  Isaac  and  of  Jacob — ^the 

98 


BENTON 


God  of  the  Hebrews,  who  now,  with  Son  and 
Spirit  coequal,  reigns  supreme  and  shall  con- 
tinue to  reign  forever  and  forever.  He  is 
the  One  who  w^as,  and  is,  and  is  to  come.  We 
are  led  to  this  conclusion  by  every  possible 
infallible  proof.  Our  God  is  no  man-made 
product,  for  He  was  made  before  anything 
was  made  that  was  made.  He  spoke  first,  not 
through  the  mouth  of  man,  but  from  His 
own  eternal  throne  in  the  heavens  His  voice 
sounded  the  command,  "Let  there  be  light, 
and  there  was  light. ' '  The  confused  elements 
knew  their  Master's  voice  and  separated  in 
obedience  thereto.  \Yhether  the  six  days  of 
Creation  were  of  twenty-four  hours'  duration, 
as  now,  or  whether  each  day  represents  the 
cycle  of  a  hundred  years  or  the  period  of  a 
thousand  twelvemonths,  we  do  not  know. 
But  this  we  do  know,  that  all  the  scientific 
research  of  the  most  distinguished  scholars 
verifies  the  order  of  Creation  exactly  as  de- 
tailed in  the  Bible. 

God  met  Moses  face  to  face,  and  on  Sinai's 
slope  gave  him  the  Decalog  written  with  His 
own  finger.  He  spoke  to  him  in  audible  voice 
from  the  burning  bush.  He  thundered  His 
commands  from  the  clouds  so  that  the  hosts 
of  the  children  of  promise  at  the  mountain's 
base  heard  with  their  own  ears  and  under- 
stood. 

He  gave  to  the  world  a  Son,  whose  divinity 
some  doubt,  but  whose  perfection  of  life  and 

99 


MODERN     SERMONS 


character  none  have  ever  questioned.  Some 
may  scoff  at  His  claims  and  speak  slightingly 
of  Him  as  only  a- Jewish  peasant,  or  a  Galilean 
vagabond,  but  all  admit  that  His  life  is  the 
only  spotless  one  known  to  the  records  of  time. 
This  Son  ascended  into  heaven,  but  the  prom- 
ised Comforter  came,  and  thousands  are  able 
to-day  to  bear  testimony  to  those  who  have 
not  yet  taken  this  Son  to  be  the  mainspring 
of  thought  and  action,  that  the  Comforter  has 
come  and  that  His  Spirit  bears  w^itness  in- 
controvertible with  theirs  that  they  are  saved. 

Every  natural  law  is  in  harmony  with  God 's 
law,  and  while  the  sun  did  stand  still  and  the 
waves  obeyed  His  voice,  these  were  miracles 
that  proved  God  the  master  of  matter  in  His 
own  universe. 

All  the  discoveries  of  the  antiquarian — all 
the  research  of  the  archeologist  have  thus  far 
been  in  substantiation  of  Scriptural  record. 
Every  writer  of  profane  history  has  con- 
firmed Bible  history  and  the  story  of  the  ad- 
vent of  the  Redeemer. 

The  claims  of  our  God  are  reasonable,  for 
all  His  hope  of  glory  is  in  the  world  to  come. 
The  promulgators  of  every  other  religious  sys- 
tem have  imposed  obedience,  bodily  torture, 
ostracism,  in  order  to  honor  and  enrich  them- 
selves; but  our  God  seeks  no  higher  honor 
than  to  be  honored  in  the  disinterested  love, 
the  pure  thoughts  and  righteous  actions  of 
His  followers  on  the  earth.     His  greatness  is 

100 


BENTON 


clothed  in  the  garb  of  humanity,  His  power  is 
arrayed  in  garments  of  unostentatiousness, 
His  kingly  majesty  is  appareled  in  robes  of 
humility,  His  throne  is  absolute  purity,  His 
crown  is  jeweled  love,  His  scepter  is  golden 
charity. 

God  is  a  spiritual  essence  penetrating  all 
substance  and  all  space,  but  He  is  a  personal 
essence,  touched  with  a  feeling  of  our  infir- 
mities, sympathizing  with  our  grief,  rejoicing 
in  our  happiness.  God  is  the  true  vine,  we 
are  the  branches,  continuing  if  we  choose  to 
live  upon  the  same  spiritual  food  that  nour- 
ishes the  parent  stem,  or  permitting,  if  we 
will,  the  engraftment  of  Satanic  sprouts  that 
will  feed  upon  carnalities.  He  is  the  tap- 
root of  all  life.  By  His  permission  the 
branches  start,  at  His  command  they  die.  God 
is  the  perfection  of  truth.  There  are  no  in- 
congruities in  nature.  His  handiwork.  The 
discrepant  exists  only  in  art. 

God  is  almighty.  All  the  forces  of  nature 
are  in  His  grasp.  The  apple  breaks  from  the 
twig,  and  Almighty  God,  acting  through  grav- 
itation, draws  it  downward  to  the  earth  in- 
stead of  permitting  it  to  fly  sidewise  or  up- 
ward into  space. 

An  atom  is  the  smallest  quantity  of  matter 
that  can  enter  into  combination,  and  by  co- 
hesion Almighty  God  holds  the  particles  of 
the  universe  together.  The  breath  of  exist- 
ence is  in  His  nostrils,  and  bright-eyed,  ruby- 

101 


MODERN     SERMONS 


lipped  childhood,  radiant  youth,  stalwart 
manhood,  and  tottering  age  are  supplied  with 
breath  from  God,  the  omnipotent  life-center 
of  the  universe. 

The  elements  obey  His  voice,  for  He  send- 
eth  the  early  and  the  latter  rains  and  the 
sunshine  from  heaven.  With  famine  He 
arouses  the  latent  charity  in  the  human  breast 
and  turns  the  hungry  to  acknowledgment  of 
Himself  as  the  Giver  of  all.  With  golden 
harvest  and  with  autumn-time  vintage,  He 
makes  glad  the  heart  of  man. 

The  circling  seasons  revolve  in  obedience  to 
the  voice  divine.  The  desolate,  verdureless, 
tempestuous,  ice-bound  winter  is  softened  into 
silence  by  the  coming  of  the  lilac-perfumed, 
violet-laden  spring;  the  blazing  heat  of  sum- 
mer sinks  into  the  peaceful  lap  of  fruited 
autumn,  all  because  God  wills. 

These  nature-manifestations  come  often- 
times, however,  to  be  regarded  lightly  be- 
cause they  seem  to  obey  fixed  laws  and  are 
expected  as  a  matter  of  course.  It  is  only 
when  we  stop  to  reflect  at  the  more  than 
clock-like  precision  with  which  day  follows 
night,  and  light  fades  into  darkness;  it  is 
only  when  we  turn  our  thoughts  outward  from 
self  to  flowering  landscape,  fertile  valley  and 
fruitful  hill;  it  is  only  when  we  pause  for 
a  moment  to  rest  from  the  mad  struggle  for 
earthly  gain  to  contemplate  God  in  His  great- 
ness, that  we  are  overwhelmed  by  the  glorious 

102 


BENTON 


magnitude  of  His  power.  But  if,  by  some 
mighty  hurricane,  the  rivers,  lakes,  and  seas 
should  be  swept  dry  of  their  waters,  and  if, 
by  some  fearful  holocaust  of  flame,  the  earth 
should  be  stript  of  all  save  man — man  left 
alone  on  the  Avorld's  desert  waste  would  still 
be  greater  than  all  the  combined  beauty  and 
strength  that  had  been  licked  up  by  the  de- 
vouring elements. 

Man,  wonderful  in  mechanism,  with  nu- 
merous bones,  with  convenient  joints,  with 
bundles  of  muscles,  with  arteries  and  veins 
fed  and  relieved  by  that  great  ceaselessly  pul- 
sating central  organ,  the  heart,  is  the  most 
complex  machine  ever  created,  and  yet  thus 
far  described,  and  if  this  be  all  of  man,  he 
is  only  a  superior-inferior  animal — superior 
in  carriage  and  bearing  to  all — inferior  in 
power  and  strength  to  many. 

"What  a  piece  of  work  is  a  man!  How 
noble  in  reason  1  How  infinite  in  faculty !  In 
form  and  moving,  how  express  and  admirable ! 
In  action  how  like  an  angel!  In  apprehen- 
sion how  like  a  god!"  It  is  in  his  spiritual 
nature  only  that  man  is  superior  to  beast. 
He  is  an  intellectual,  an  emotional,  a  willing 
animal  as  opposed  to  the  mere  instinctive 
lower  orders.  It  is  this  spiritual  nature  that 
makes  man  a  positive  factor  for  either  good 
or  evil,  and  it  is  God's  transforming  power 
working  upon  this  spirit  that  manifests  the 
greatness  of  God. 

103 


MODERN    SERMONS 


Man — conceived  in  sin,  wicked  by  nature, 
slothful,  idle,  mischievous,  lustful,  malicious, 
disobedient,  envious,  dishonest,  recreant,  pro- 
fane— this  is  the  subject,  and  from  the  human 
standpoint  and  so  far  as  human  agencies  are 
concerned,  the  condition  is  a  hopeless  one.  It 
is  at  this  point  of  man's  utter  helplessness, 
however,  that  God's  greatness  is  revealed,  for 
the  inability  of  man  to  succor  man,  the  in- 
ability of  man  to  transform,  by  his  own 
strength,  his  own  soul,  makes  the  miracle  of 
redemptive  power  the  chief  est  mark  of  God's 
divinity.  It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  a  more 
pitiable  lot  than  that  which  characterizes  this 
lost  estate  of  man,  and  the  gift  of  a  personal 
Savior  to  a  sin-sick,  dying  people,  a  Savior 
who  was  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without 
sin,  who  should  be  an  example  of  perfect  life 
to  men  and  women  all  down  through  the 
ages,  a  Savior  who  in  leaving  the  world  gave 
promise  of  a  second  coming,  a  Savior  who  has 
sent,  in  His  physical  absence,  the  Holy  Spirit 
to  bear  witness  of  His  constant  presence — 
this  gift  of  Jesus  Christ  to  a  sin-sick,  dying 
world  is  God's  richest  benefaction  to  man. 

Jesus  Christ,  Son  of  God,  conceived  by  the 
Holy  Ghost,  born  of  the  Virgin  Mary,  was  a 
miracle  in  conception,  in  birth,  in  sonship. 

Those  who  attempt  to  explain  the  power  of 
God  and  Christ  by  natural  law,  those  who  at- 
tempt to  solve  the  problem  of  redemption  by 
human  computation  fail,  and,  no  doubt,  are 

104 


BENTON 


lost,  because  they  do  not  rise  above  the  human 
and  realize  that  Christ  was  a  miracle,  and 
that  Christianity  is  founded  on  a  system  of 
miracles.  It  is  the  superhuman  power  of 
God  that  inspires  reverence  and  respect,  for 
while  man  may  love  his  equals,  it  is  only  his 
superiors  he  reveres.  If  God  were  human,  He 
would  be  on  the  same  level  of  ability  with  us ; 
and  Himself  no  greater  than  man,  would  not 
be  entitled  to  man's  adoration  and  worship. 

There  are  some  men,  good  men,  who  at- 
tempt to  explain  God  and  His  power  by  nat- 
ural laws  and  by  asserting  that  God  is  in  har- 
mony with  nature;  but  they  do  not  convince 
— indeed,  they  only  confirm — skepticism,  for 
no  man  is  able  to  accept  God  by  faith  until 
he  realizes  that  God  rises  above  man,  who 
is  circumscribed  and  limited  by  the  forces  of 
nature's  environment,  and  that  He  is  a  su- 
pernatural miracle-worker.  There  are  those 
who  hesitate  and  doubtfully  refuse  to  accept 
as  possible  the  Scriptural  accounts  of  Christ's 
miracles  of  physical  healing,  because  such  re- 
sults are  unexplainable  by  natural  laws.  Yet 
if  these  honest  skeptics  would  but  look  be- 
yond nature  to  nature's  God,  and  realize  that 
the  miracles  of  physical  healing  performed  by 
Christ  in  person  were  but  a  type  of  the 
miracles  of  spiritual  healing  to  be  performed 
in  the  days  to  come,  all  doubts  would  vanish. 
The  miracle  of  soul  salvation,  which  has  been 
wrought  out  to  its  completeness  in  many  of 

105 


MODERN    SERMONS 


our  lives,  and  that  is  still,  blest  be  God,  being 
wrought  out  anew  in  other  lives  every  day,  is 
a  greater  miracle  by  far  than  that  of  bodily 
healing.  To  realize  fully  this  wicked,  sloth- 
ful, idle,  mischievous,  lustful,  malicious,  rec- 
reant, disobedient,  envious,  dishonest,  pro- 
fane natural  man,  and  then  to  grasp  the  fact 
that  by  one  word  of  loving  fatherly  forgive- 
ness from  Christ,  the  Savior,  to  the  sin-sick, 
repentant  soul,  the  Spirit  bearing  witness 
with  man's  spirit  that  he  is  redeemed,  that 
darkness  has  become  instant  light,  that  im- 
purity is  supplanted  by  purity,  that  eternal 
death  has  given  way  to  immortal  life,  is  to 
realize  that  Christ,  by  the  office  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  is  a  greater  miracle-worker  in  the 
early  morning  hours  of  the  twentieth  century 
than  He  was  when  He  healed  the  paralytics 
and  lepers  in  Galilee. 

Resurrection  power  is  in  God's  hands. 
There  are  those  who  think  the  restoration  of 
life  to  the  dead  body  an  impossibility,  but 
these  honest  doubters,  once  more,  measure 
God's  power  by  the  limit  of  human  ability — 
they  attempt  an  explanation  on  the  basis  of 
natural  law,  and  herein  they  fail,  for  God  is 
hyper-physical,  a  performer  of  miracles.  He 
is  above  and  beyond  us  in  power,  and  that  He 
is  not  circumscribed  by  human  limitations  is 
the  greatest  argument  in  proof  of  His  divin- 
ity. Those  who  will  not  admit  resurgent 
power  because  they  can  not  find  satisfactory 

106 


BENTON 


explanation  for  it  by  measure  with  human 
ability,  must  also  refuse  to  believe  many  of 
the  commonest  of  every-clay  phenomena.  Re- 
fusing to  believe  in  bodily  resurrection  be- 
cause of  inability  to  understand  its  processes, 
the  same  individual  must  believe  that  his 
eyes  have  deceived  him,  and  that  every  grow- 
ing plant,  every  budding  bush,  every  thrifty 
tree  he  seems  to  see  is  a  creature  of  his  imagi- 
nation that  really  has  no  actual,  material  ex- 
istence, for  it  is  only  from  the  dry  and  un- 
promising seed  buried  in  the  earth  that  the 
flowering  twig  and  fruitful  vine  have  sprung. 
All  plant  life  is  a  resurrection  miracle,  and 
God  is  the  agent.  Do  you  understand  this? 
No.  Do  you  admit  it?  Yes.  Then  do  not 
doubt  the  possibility  of  bodily  resurrection. 

The  caterpillar  is,  in  appearance,  a  most  un- 
promising reptile,  but  it  dies,  and,  in  the 
casket  of  hardened  shell,  its  cocoon  grave  is 
wrapt  about  it,  but  the  breath  of  God  at 
springtime  bursts  the  bands  of  death,  and  the 
humble  worm  of  former  existence  flits  from 
flower  to  flower  with  wing  of  dazzling  beauty, 
sipping  nectar  sweetness  from  rose  and  hon- 
eysuckle, and,  in  its  atmospheric  heaven,  look- 
ing down  to  earth,  its  former  home,  where  foot 
of  man  and  beast  were  wont  to  tread  upon  it, 
it  testifies  to  the  resurrection  miracle.  "So 
also  is  the  resurrection  of  the  dead.  It  is 
sown  in  corruption;  it  is  raised  in  incorrup- 
tion.     It  is  sown  in  dishonor;  it  is  raised  in 

107 


MODERN     SERMONS 


glory.  It  is  sown  in  weakness ;  it  is  raised  in 
power.  It  is  sown  a  natural  body;  it  is 
raised  a  spiritual  body." 

Life  is  a  fitful  dream ;  happiness  alternating 
with  sorrow;  hope  with  discouragement;  as- 
surance with  trial;  victory  with  defeat;  and 
at  last  comes  death.  "But  thanks  be  to  God, 
who  giveth  us  the  victory  through  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ, ' '  death,  while  a  rest  from  earth- 
ly toil  and  suffering,  is  not  an  eternal  sleep, 
for  if,  in  life,  we  have  been  faithful  in  press- 
ing forward  toward  the  mark  for  the  prize  of 
our  high  calling  of  God  in  Christ  Jesus,  we 
shall  rise  again.  The  mighty  God,  the  ever- 
lasting Father,  the  Prince  of  Peace,  at  the 
sound  of  the  last  trumpet,  when  the  heavens 
shall  be  rolled  back  as  a  scroll,  will  ride  in 
majesty  upon  the  clouds  of  heaven,  and,  in 
obedience  to  the  divine  command,  the  earth 
and  sea  will  give  up  their  dead,  and,  in  re- 
sponse to  the  Master's  "Well  done,"  the 
saved  of  earth  will  enter  into  the  joy  of  their 
Lord,  where  in  final,  complete  victory  they 
will  reign  in  celestial  happiness  through  never- 
ending  time. 

When  weVe  been  there  ten  thousand  years, 

Bright  shining  as  the  sun, 
We  've  no  less  days  to  sing  God 's  praise 


Thus  is  the  power  of  the  Lord  God  Al- 
mighty made  manifest   over   death  and  the 

108 


BENTON 


grave.  "0  death,  where  is  thy  sting?  O 
grave,  where  is  thy  victory?"  The  sting  of 
death  is  sin,  and  God 's  miracle-working  power 
is  disclosed  with  greater  emphasis  in  the  res- 
urrection of  the  soul  than  in  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  body.  Raising  an  immortal  soul 
from  the  dark,  loathsome  charnel-house  of  sin 
is  a  greater  marvel  by  far  than  the  result 
nineteen  centuries  ago  of  the  divine  com- 
mand, "Lazarus,  come  forth."  Blest  be 
God!  By  His  almighty  power  He  can  raise, 
He  does  raise,  from  spiritual  death  to  spir- 
itual life.  "And  as  we  have  borne  the  image 
of  the  earthy,  we  shall  also  bear  the  image 
of  the  heavenly." 

God  is  not  only  all  powerful  in  the  physical 
acceptation  of  the  term,  but  He  is  almighty 
because  of  His  holy  character.  He  is  the 
personal  exemplification  of  human  perfection 
in  the  body  of  His  Son,  Jesus  of  Galilee,  who 
was  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin. 

God,  having  made  man  a  free  moral  agent, 
is  a  wooer,  not  a  coercionist.  If  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  sacrifice  made  for  man's  redemp- 
tion will  not  win  man's  love,  God  will  not 
apply  physical  force  to  compel  acceptance,, 
love,  and  obedience.  A  military  chieftain, 
tho  holding  the  lives  of  his  soldiers  in  his 
hands,  exhibits  his  power  by  refusing  to  exer- 
cise compulsion,  and  realizes  that  the  best  serv- 
ice rendered  is  prompted  by  love  for  the  com- 
mander. Thus  God  shows  His  almighty  power. 

109 


MODERN     SERMONS 


God  again  exhibits  the  greatness  of  His 
character  in  that  the  love  He  exercises  for 
man  is  a  disinterested  love.  Men  oftentimes 
appear  to  esteem  others  because  they  hope 
thereby  to  profit  themselves,  but  our  Heavenly 
Father  loves  us  for  our  sakes,  not  for  His 
own. 

I  have  endeavored  to  show  that  God  is 
almighty;  that  the  elements  are  under  His 
control ;  that  life  and  death  are  in  His  hands ; 
that  He  is  Master  of  physical  and  spiritual 
death ;  that  He  is  the  bestower  of  immortality ; 
and,  lastly,  that  His  greatness  is  most  promi- 
nent because  of  His  holy  character.  God  is 
eternal.  He  has  reigned  from  the  beginning 
and  shall  rule  in  loving  justice  through  the 
unending  ages  of  the  future.  God,  His  power, 
and  eternity  are  not  altogether  comprehen- 
sible to  the  finite  mind.  If  we  could  fully 
understand  God  He  would  not  be  infinite, 
divine. 

The  child  lying  at  night  in  its  little  crib 
by  its  mother's  side  cries  out  because  of  the 
darkness  its  eyes  can  not  penetrate,  and 
wants  to  get  up.  The  mother  says,  "Lie  still 
and  wait  till  daylight,  child. ' '  And  the  little 
one  asks,  ' '  When  will  that  be  ? "  The  mother 
says,  ' '  It  will  be  daylight  after  awhile, ' '  and, 
taking  the  tiny  hand  in  hers,  the  restless 
child  calmly  drops  into  peaceful  slumber, 
confident  that  at  morning's  dawn  light  will 
come.     So    with    God's    grown-up    children. 

110 


BENTON 


Amid  the  impenetrable  gloom  of  limited 
knowledge  we  grow  restless  and  uneasy  be- 
cause we  can  not  see  Him  face  to  face,  but 
by  faith,  putting  our  hands  in  His,  we  may 
confidently  expect  that  after  the  night  of  rest- 
less earthly  trial  He  will  reveal  Himself  in 
the  fulness  of  His  beauty  at  eternity's  joyous 
daybreak. 


Ill 


BEVAN 

THE  POWER  AND  GLORY  OF  CHRIST  AS 
THE  REVELATION  OF  GOD 


1-8  113 


LLEWELYN  DAVID  BEVAN 

Principali  of  Congregational  College,  Mel- 
bourne, Australia ;  born  at  Llanelly,  Caer- 
marthonshii-e,  South  Wales,  September  11, 
1842;  educated  at  schools  in  native  town; 
University  College,  London;  became  col- 
league to  the  Rev.  T.  Binney  of  Weigh 
House  chapel,  London,  1865;  pastor 
Tottenham  Court  Road  chapel  (now 
known  as  Whitefield's),  1869;  while  here 
was  a  member  of  the  Council  of  the 
Working  Men's  College  and  lecturer  on 
English,  and  successor  of  Rev.  F.  D. 
Maurice  in  the  presidency  of  the  Bible 
class  at  that  institution;  also  lecturer  on 
English  and  English  literature  at  New 
College;  member  for  Marylebone  of  the 
London  school  board,  1873;  minister  of 
the  Old  Brick  Presbyterian  church  of 
New  York,  1876;  D.D.,  Princeton;  min- 
ister of  the  Congregational  church  at 
Highbury  Quadrant,  London,  1882-86; 
twice  president  of  the  Congregational 
Union,  Australia,  and  now  chairman- 
elect;  chairman  of  the  educational  jury 
at  the  International  Exhibition,  of  Vic- 
toria, 1888 ;  received  in  recognition  of  his 
services  the  French  decoration  of  ^^  Offi- 
cer de  V Instruction  Puhlique  de  la  Re- 
publique  Frangaise,'^  rarely  held  by  any 
not  a  French  citizen;  chair  of  ecclesias- 
tical history  and  later  of  theology  at 
the  Victorian  Congregational  College; 
author  of  ''Christ  and  the  Age,"  ''Ser- 
mons to  Students,"  etc. 


114 


THE  POWER  AND  GLORY  OF 
CHRIST  AS  THE  REVELA- 
TION OF  GOD 

Prin.  Llewelyn  D.  Bevan,  LL.B.,  D.D. 

"He  that   hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father." — 
John  14  :  9. 

THE  extraordinary  character  of  these 
words  can  hardly  be  realized  by  us  to 
whom  they  are  the  natural  expression 
of  a  truth  which  lies  at  the  foundation  of  our 
faith,  and  has  dominated  with  ever-increas- 
ing power  the  thought  of  the  world  through 
all  the  Christian  centuries.  What  must  they 
have  meant  in  the  lips  of  Him  who  first  ut- 
tered them,  and  in  the  ears  of  those  to  whom 
they  were  addrest!  He  was  of  Israel,  and 
so  were  the  little  group  of  disciples  that  must 
have  heard  them  with  startled  wonder.  For 
ages,  in  the  minds  of  the  race  to  which  these 
men  belonged,  there  had  been  wrought  the 
conviction  of  the  unity  of  God,  His  spiritual- 
ity and  all  those  exalted  thoughts  which  be- 
longed to  monotheism  by  which  they  had  been 
separated  from  all  other  nations,  and  to  bear 
testimony  to  which  truth  they  had  been 
trained  as  a  nation,  and  preserved  by  expe- 
riences of  the  greatest  suffering  from  the 
idolatry  and  materialism  of  all  other  peoples. 

115 


MODERN     SERMONS 


One  of  the  first  principles  of  their  law  was 
that  they  must  never  seek  to  present  their 
conception  of  God  under  any  material  form. 
They  had  been  taught  that  God's  thoughts 
were  not  their  thoughts;  that  high  as  the 
heavens  were  above  the  earth,  so  high  was 
the  Supreme  Being  above  every  condition  and 
form  of  man.  It  was,  indeed,  true  that  God 
might  reveal  His  will  to  men,  and  might  use 
them  as  the  instruments  of  His  will,  and  as 
prophets  who  should  speak  the  words  of  God, 
interpreting  His  word  and  declaring  His  pur- 
poses of  righteousness  or  mercy.  How  start- 
ling, then,  must  the  declaration  have  been. 
*'He  that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father." 

The  sequel  of  this  wonderful  teaching  of 
Jesus  is  no  less  remarkable  than  the  occur- 
rence of  the  teaching  itself.  The  claim  which 
Christ  thus  makes  led  to  His  death,  the  vio- 
lent scattering  of  His  disciples  and  the  ap- 
parent destruction  of  all  the  effects  of  His 
ministry.  And  yet,  within  a  few  weeks  of 
His  death,  these  men  who  had  heard  Him 
speak  these  words  began  a  work,  the  essence 
of  which  is  absolute  faith  in  what  the  Master 
said,  divine  adoration  of  His  person  and  the 
proclamation  of  this  truth  as  the  condition 
of  human  redemption  and  the  foundation  of 
the  kingdom  of  God  upon  the  earth.  From 
the  beginning  of  this  work  it  has  gone  on,  and 
more  and  more  distinctly.  All  the  ages  have 
more  clearly  endeavored  to  define  the  mean- 

116 


BEVAN 


ing  of  these  words;  and,  notwithstanding  the 
criticism  of  philosophy  and  the  opposition  of 
secular  and  worldly  thought,  the  relationship 
of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  Father  in  a  unity  of 
nature  altogether  unique  and  transcendent 
has  been  and  is  growingly  the  mightiest  moral 
and  spiritual  power  ever  manifested  in  the 
history  of  mankind. 

The  significance  of  these  facts  to  a  thought- 
ful mind  can  not  be  overestimated.  They  ar- 
rest the  attention;  they  compel  inquiry;  they 
are  the  strongest  argument  for  the  essential 
truth  of  the  doctrine.  They  are  proved  by 
experience  to  be  the  most  powerful  grounds 
of  belief  which  can  be  presented  to  both  rea- 
son and  faith. 

These  words  involve  much  more  than  the 
mere  authority  of  Christ  as  a  teacher.  They 
transfer  our  attention  from  the  mere  doc- 
trine and  words  of  Jesus  to  His  personality. 
He,  Himself,  in  His  work  and  character,  be- 
comes the  manifestation  of  God.  When  we 
see  Him,  we  see  God.  His  character  is  God's 
character.  We  do  not  reason  about  the  Su- 
preme Being.  We  do  not  draw  our  conclu- 
sions from  His  works  or  His  discourses,  but 
we  look  verily  upon  God  Himself.  In  a  word, 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  manifestation  of  God  in 
the  highest  form  in  which  God  can  make 
Himself  known  to  man's  faculties  of  percep- 
tion and  apprehension. 

In  the  first  place,  the  power  of  God  was 

117 


MODERN     SERMONS 


exhibited  in  the  works  of  Jesus  Christ.  What- 
ever view  we  may  take  of  events  which  are 
described  as  miraculous,  they  are  always  as- 
sociated with  a  relationship  to  God  as  the 
source  of  their  power.  The  human  agents 
concerned  in  them  were  the  instruments  em- 
ployed by  God  in  their  performance,  and 
those  who  performed  them  or  directed  them 
are  represented  as  in  some  way  invoking  the 
divine  presence  and  power.  They  produce  in 
their  action  the  sense  of  human  powerless- 
ness,  unless  there  be  given  some  specific  di- 
vine authority  and  aid  for  their  occurrence. 
The  works  of  Jesus,  however,  show  no  char- 
acteristic of  this  kind.  They  are  directly  and 
immediately  His  own.  We  might  define  the 
miracles  of  Jesus  as  His  works  done  in  His 
own  way.  The  personality  of  the  wonder- 
worker is  greater  than  His  work.  He  stands 
supreme  above  it.  Jesus  has  direct  and  im- 
mediate control  over  what  He  does.  There 
are,  indeed,  some  cases  in  which  the  works  of 
Christ  are  referred  to  as  if  He  were  a  divine 
instrument;  but  these  are  only  the  instances 
where  the  spectators  press  their  judgment  of 
the  work  from  their  own  standpoint;  that  is 
to  say,  they  are  regarding  our  Lord's  work 
as  they  have  learned  to  regard  all  miraculous 
events.  In  some  cases  Christ  Himself  uses 
the  words  which  seem  to  place  Him  in  the 
class  of  other  miraculous  agents;  but  if  we 
carefully  examine  them  we  shall  find  that  He 

118 


BEVAN 


speaks  down  to  the  plane,  so  to  say,  of  those 
who  are  around  Him.  The  real  essence  of 
Christ's  working  is  direct  and  immediate; 
and  if  He  refers  to  the  authority  of  God,  it 
is  only  to  affirm  that  that  authority  is  His 
own,  which  He  exercises  not  as  dependent 
upon  God,  but  as  God's  equal. 

It  is  this  characteristic  which  places  Christ's 
work  on  a  level  with  the  divine  relation  to 
the  material  universe.  The  power  of  God  in 
nature  is  everywhere  direct  and  immediate. 
It  works  with  all  the  facility  of  perfect  con- 
trol. Its  manifestations  are  silent,  irresistible, 
directly  achieving  the  ends  which  are  sought. 
Man,  indeed,  may  be  compelled  by  the  limi- 
tation of  his  faculties  to  form  conceptions  of 
intermediate  processes,  means  to  ends,  second 
causes,  so-called  laws  of  nature  and  the  like. 
But  these  are  only  the  idols  of  the  human 
mind,  and  even  scientific  philosophy  is  be- 
ginning to  recognize  the  presence  in  the  uni- 
verse of  the  one  supreme  universal  force  of 
which  it  may  declare  only  an  agnostic  ex- 
istence, but  which  further  thinking  recognizes 
as  the  presence  of  the  universal  and  imma- 
nent God.  It  was  thus  that  God,  as  Christ, 
worked.  He  simply  took  the  bread  and  the 
few  small  fishes  and  gave  them  to  the  dis- 
ciples to  distribute  to  the  multitude,  and  the 
slender  supply  is  made  by  Him  to  satisfy  the 
assembled  thousands.  When  man  can  explain 
the  multiplication  of  the  seed  into  its  harvest 

119 


MODERN     SERMONS 


fulness,  then,  too,  will  be  explained  the  power 
of  the  Lord.  He  touches  the  leper  and  says: 
**I  will;  be  thou  clean."  And  immediately 
he  is  cleansed.  What  can  more  wonderfully 
illustrate  those  healing  ministries  with  which 
the  universe  abounds  and  in  relation  to  which 
human  learning  finds  that  its  chief  endeavor, 
and,  indeed,  its  only  success,  is  to  remove 
those  hindrances  on  which  condition  God  has 
established  the  methods  of  doing  away  with 
the  pain  and  disease  that  have  invaded  the 
world.  A  word  of  Christ  stills  the  tempest, 
turns  to  adamant  the  sea  upon  which  He 
walks.  In  this  regard  there  is  nothing  more 
wonderful,  nothing  more  divine  than  our 
Lord's  own  explanation  of  His  death  and 
resurrection.  Even  apostles  assert  a  divine 
interposition  when  they  say  "God  raised  him 
from  the  dead. ' '  But  Christ  declares  that  no 
man  can  take  His  life  from  Him.  He  lays 
it  down  of  Himself,  and  He  Himself  takes  it 
again.  And  He  does  not  hesitate  to  place 
Himself  on  an  equality  with  God,  and  de- 
clares that,  not  only  shall  the  dead  hear  a 
divine  voice,  but  that  His  voice  also  will  be 
heard  by  those  who  lie  Avithin  their  tombs. 
And  of  this  He  gives  a  foretaste  when  He 
calls  through  the  portals  of  the  grave  and  the 
man  who  had  been  dead  four  days  comes 
forth,  and  the  Master  bids  them  loose  him  and 
let  him  go. 

In  all  this  have  we  not  a  supreme  revelation 

120 


BEVAN 


of  God's  power?  There  is  no  limitation  of 
the  sphere  of  its  exercise.  The  material  forces 
of  nature,  the  various  conditions  of  human 
life,  that  which  sin  has  injured  and  disturbed, 
disease  and  hunger  and  death  are  only  the 
arenas  where  Christ  displays  the  infinite 
power  of  God.  The  spiritual  w^orld,  with  its 
awful  mysteries  which  overawe  and  paralyze 
and  destroy  man's  life  and  blessedness,  are 
alike  beneath  the  divine  control  as  manifested 
by  our  Lord.  The  tempter  has  no  power  over 
Him.  Sin  and  -  rebellion  can  not  touch  the 
divine  personality,  even  when  it  has  taken 
upon  itself  man's  frailty  and  infirmity.  The 
world  of  evil  spirits  is  obedient  to  the  will  of 
Christ.  Not  only  do  angels  wait  upon  Him 
to  do  His  bidding,  but  the  fallen  spirits  them- 
selves are  submissive  to  His  word,  and  do  His 
pleasure.  As  we  behold  thus  His  mighty 
working,  we  do  not  smite  upon  our  breasts 
like  the  Roman  oificer  and  cry,  ''Verily,  this 
was  the  Son  of  God";  neither  do  we,  with 
Peter,  cry,  "Depart  from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful 
man,  0  Lord."  But  we  fall  submissive  and 
adoring  before  the  divine  majesty  and  join 
our  voices  with  those  who  render  their  as- 
cription of  praise,  "For  the  Lord  God  om- 
nipotent reigneth." 

It  is  not  only  the  works  of  power  which  are 
manifested  as  divine  in  Christ,  but  also  God's 
goodness  and  beneficence.  Wherever  we  turn 
in   nature,  we  find  that  the   divine  wisdom 

121 


MODERN    SERMONS 


unites  with  the  divine  power  in  operations 
that  manifest  beneficence.  The  material 
world  is  everywhere  ordered;  but,  as  we  rise 
in  the  scale  of  beings  and  ascend  through  the 
various  grades  of  sentiency  up  to  the  high- 
est, we  are  everywhere  arrested  by  the  har- 
mony working  for  good,  the  provisions  which 
are  made  to  satisfy  the  differing  orders  of 
creation  according  to  their  need  and  rank. 
The  world  may  not  be  always  a  scene  of  uni- 
versal goodness,  but  it  is  the  abode  of  good- 
ness. And  how  clear  did  Christ  make  this 
by  the  character  of  His  life  and  the  ends 
He  ever  sought !  How  many  events  we  might 
recall  in  the  history  of  Christ,  where  ^He 
showed  Himself  as  the  dispenser  of  mercy  as, 
in  the  picturesque  and  gracious  language  of 
the  evangelist,  "He  went  about  doing  good." 
Behold  that  crowd  who  gathered  about  Him 
at  the  door  of  the  house  when  the  sun  is  sink- 
ing in  the  west,  and  they  brought  to  Him 
from  all  the  region  round  the  sick  and  the 
halt  and  the  blind  and  the  lame,  and  He  sent 
them  away  healed  and  rejoicing.  How  many 
voices  do  we  not  hear  with  their  piercing  sor- 
row crying,  ''Have  mercy,"  changed  into 
psalms  of  exultant  thankfulness!  When  He 
saw  the  multitudes,  He  had  compassion.  No 
call  for  pity  and  for  help  was  ever  disre- 
garded. He  joined  in  the  simple  pleasures  of 
the  marriage  feast  and  saved  the  needy,  but 
too    generous    hospitality    from    disappoint- 

122 


BEVAN 


ment  and  shame.  He  turns  the  funeral  pro- 
cession into  the  glad  return  home  of  the  life 
restored.  Christ,  in  the  few  short  months  of 
His  human  career,  not  only  everywhere  ex- 
hibited the  beneficence  of  God,  but  left  a  seed 
of  human  kindness  and  brotherhood  w^hich 
ever  grows  and  repeats  His  own  kindliness  in 
the  growing  service  of  human  love  and  thank- 
fulness. When  we  look  at  Him,  we  see  the 
Father.  God  is  not  only  the  mighty  one  who 
rules  all  things  by  His  might,  but  He  is  the 
heart  of  the  universe,  and  man's  surmise  has 
become  assurance  that  it  is  the  heart  of  a 
Father,  for  men  have  looked  upon  the  face 
of  Christ. 

There  are  some  events  and  some  character- 
istics in  the  life  and  character  of  Jesus  which 
have  occasioned  perplexity  in  many  minds. 
For  example.  His  w^ords  to  the  Syrophenician 
woman  seem  to  jar  upon  some  of  those  who 
have  been  drawn  to  the  goodness  of  Him, 
whose  mighty  works  were  so  beneficent.  Did 
He  not  also  curse  the  barren  fig-tree?  The 
event  at  Gadara,  when  the  devils  were  per- 
mitted to  enter  the  swine  and  drive  them  to 
destruction,  has  seemed  to  some  to  indicate  a 
lack  of  perfect  self-control  on  the  part  of 
Christ.  These  incidents  seem  so  inconsistent 
with  the  general  tenor  of  His  life  as  to  lead 
many  to  doubt  their  historical  certainty.  But 
is  not  this  a  superficial  criticism?  May  we 
not  find  that  even  here  we  are  looking  upon 

123 


MODERN    SERMONS 


the  Father,  when  we  are  regarding  our  Lord? 
Does  not  this  show  us  a  divine  sovereignty, 
which  must  not  be  measured  merely  by  our 
conceptions  of  power  and  goodness,  and  which, 
tho  we  may  explain  it  in  some  measure 
by  the  judgment  of  our  faculties,  must  yet 
always  leave  a  residuum  of  the  inexplicable, 
which  we  find  when  we  are  dealing  with  the 
things  that  are  divine. 

God  is  sovereign.  Christ,  too,  was  sover- 
eign. Meek  and  lowly,  absolutely  human 
and  brotherly  tho  He  was,  there  was  yet  in 
Him  a  separateness  which  all  felt,  a  region  of 
dignity  and  supreme  aloofness  which  not  even 
His  most  intimate  friends  could  overtake. 
This  is  so  in  the  di\ane  supremacy — the  sov- 
ereignty of  God,  which  even  man's  last  efforts 
and  most  curious  research  can  never  altogether 
comprehend.  These  are  the  limits  between 
man  and  God,  w^hich  man  can  not  overpass. 
And  if  there  had  not  been  these  limits  in 
Christ's  relation  to  men,  He  would  have  failed 
to  present  to  us  fully  the  showing  forth  of 
God. 

There  are  some  considerations,  however, 
which  will  help  us  to  understand  something 
of  this  mystery.  It  is  not  merely  that  the 
conditions  which  we  now  consider  are  those 
of  suffering  and  distress,  but  they  are  such 
suffering  and  distress  as  seem  to  us  so  need- 
less, inflicted  by  a  malign  chance,  rather  than 
by  the  hand  of  a  just  and  beneficent  God. 

124 


BEVAN 


How  unequal  seems  the  lot  of  man!  How  do 
the  evil  escape  suffering,  while  the  good  are 
plunged  in  continual  pain?  We  do  some- 
times see  the  meaning  and  the  issue  of  the 
ills  of  life.  If  we  can  not  answer  the  an- 
cient question,  What  is  evil?  we  can  at  least 
make  some  reply,  when  it  is  demanded,  What 
are  the  ends  which  evil  tends  to  subserve? 
And  a  similar  answer  may  be  given  when  we 
turn  to  the  work  of  our  Lord.  Did  mercy 
seem  to  delay  when  the  Syrophenician 
woman  sought  help?  Was  there  restriction 
and  apparent  injustice  in  the  signs  of  favor- 
itism and  special  love?  But  note  the  result: 
It  was  only  that  the  pain  and  suffering  which 
were  physical  might  be  seen  to  issue  in  a 
higher  faith  and  upon  that  poor  heart  that 
had  been  crusht  with  its  sorrows.  He  pours 
all  the  fulness  of  His  abundant  blessing. 

In  that  strange  and  remarkable  incident  of 
the  cursing  of  the  barren  fig-tree,  apparently 
so  unlike  Christ,  there  was  a  holy  discipline, 
and  there  were  moral  lessons  which  have  far 
transcended  the  destruction  of  a  tree,  as  also 
in  the  apparently  wasteful  loss  of  the  herd 
of  swine.  These  are  the  exemplary  and  ex- 
ceptional manifestations  of  the  divine  sov- 
ereignty, and  altho  this  depends  upon  God's 
personal  will,  yet  its  movements  are  ever 
marked  by  those  principles  of  righteousness 
which,  tho  sometimes  hidden  and  concealed, 
work  themselves  out  for  the  furtherance  of 

125 


MODERN    SERMONS 


the   kingdom   and   the   ultimate   blessing   of 
mankind. 

We  ascend  in  the  scale  of  the  attributes 
as  we  observe  in  the  next  place  how  the  moral 
righteousness  of  God  appears  in  the  person 
of  our  Lord.  We  need  not  dwell  upon  the 
sinlessness  of  Christ's  personal  nature.  But 
it  must  be  noted  that  sinlessness  is  not  merely 
a  quality  attributed  to  Him  by  His  admiring 
and  adoring  followers,  but  the  Lord  Himself 
was  conscious  of  it,  and  even  referred  to  it, 
thus  separating  Himself  from  all  the  great 
spiritual  leaders  of  the  race,  whose  power  was 
so  often  gained  through  those  deep  personal 
experiences  which  were  theirs  because  of  sin. 
But  the  whole  of  Christ's  being  was  lifted  up 
on  to  this  high  altitude  of  moral  conviction 
and  service.  He  set  Himself  at  once  to  de- 
fine and  to  enlarge  and  even  to  suspend  what 
had  been  given  to  the  people  in  their  national 
and  moral  law.  He  exprest  His  judgment 
upon  the  judges  and  the  teachers  of  the 
people.  He  rebuked  princes.  He  declared 
what  were  the  higher  standards  of  duty.  He 
set  ethical  principles  in  His  doctrine  which 
Christian  men  and  even  high  ecclesiastics  re- 
gard as  still  only  ideal  and  utopian.  He  re- 
created for  humanity  a  moral  sense  filled  with 
hopefulness.  His  own  experiences  took  up 
into  themselves  all  that  had  been  typical  and 
symbolical  in  the  ancient  ordinances,  and 
gave  to  them  the  interpretation  which  had 

126 


BEVAN 


onlj^  significance  in  respect  to  the  moral  gov- 
ernment of  God  and  the  renewal  and  redemp- 
tion of  mankind.  Nowhere  does  the  rite  ap- 
pear more  glorious  than  in  the  person  and 
work  of  Jesns  Christ.  He  proclaimed  the 
kingdom.  He  laid  down  the  principles  of  its 
constitution.  He  promulgated  its  laws.  He 
was  Himself  its  most  glorious  example;  and 
He  manifested  Himself  as  God's  most  potent 
instrument  for  the  establishment  of  His  rule 
among  men. 

This  revelation  of  God  contains,  as  the  last 
quality  we  shall  notice,  the  love  of  God,  which 
is  not  so  much  one  of  the  divine  attributes  as 
the  essential  spirit  of  God  Himself.  The  very 
language  of  Christ  shows  this  divine  love. 
The  idea  of  the  fatherhood  of  God  was  not 
altogether  unknown  to  the  ancient  religion. 
Even  the  heathen  had  had  some  faint  con- 
ception of  God  as  a  Father.  But  it  was  Christ 
who  made  this  idea  of  fatherhood  the  abso- 
lute expression  of  God's  nature.  It  was  the 
one  word  He  always  used  when  He  spoke  of 
God.  Thus  He  exhibited  the  love  of  God. 
His  power.  His  goodness.  His  sovereignty  and 
righteousness  were  all  suffused  with  this  at- 
mosphere of  love.  Love  was  the  explanation 
of  His  coming  into  the  world.  Love  was  the 
power  which  sustained  Him,  and  it  was  to 
those  ideals  and  ends  of  love  that  He  sought 
to  bring  men  and  thus  secure  their  final 
blessedness.    Had  there  been  no  revelation  of 

127 


MODERN     SERMONS 


God  in  Christ,  we  should  never  have  known 
the  love  of  God.  We  might  have  caught 
glimpses  of  His  beauty,  but  it  would  have 
been  so  shrouded,  so  overcast,  that  we  should 
never  have  dwelt  in  the  fulness  of  that  light 
wherein  we  now  find  the  love  of  God  shed 
abroad  in  our  hearts  through  Jesus  Christ. 

What  then,  we  may  ask,  is  our  relation  to 
this  revealer  of  God?  We  owe  to  Him  the 
highest  obedience,  submission,  trust  and  love. 
Have  we  given  these?  Have  we  seen  the 
Father  yet  in  Christ?  It  is  through  this 
knowledge  of  God  in  Christ  that  our  life 
abides  in  the  life  eternal.  No  man  has  seen 
Him  at  any  time,  but  the  Son  who  ever  dwell- 
eth  in  the  Father,  He  hath  revealed  Him. 
There  is  no  witness  mightier  than  that  of 
Christ  Himself;  and  He  has  declared  that 
he  that  hath  seen  Him  hath  seen  the  Father. 
The  vision  that  we  need  is  not  the  vision  of 
the  real  and  the  present,  it  is  the  vision  of 
faith;  it  is  the  love  of  the  heart;  it  is  the 
obedience  of  the  will;  it  is  the  perception  of 
the  spirit;  and  thus  seeing  Christ,  we,  too, 
may  see  the  Father. 


128 


BLACK 
THE  ATTRACTION  OF  THE  PRESENT 


1—9  129 


HUGH  BLACK 

Professor  of  practical  theology  Union 
Theological  Seminary,  New  York,  since 
1906 ;  born  at  Rothesay,  Scotland,  March 
26,  1869;  educated  at  Rothesay  Acad- 
emy; Glasgow  University,  1883-87;  Free 
Church  College,  Glasgow,  1887-91;  or- 
dained 1891;  minister  of  Sherwood 
Church,  Paisley,  Scotland,  1891-96;  St. 
George's  United  Free  Church,  Edin- 
burgh, 1896-1906;  came  to  the  United 
States,  1906;  author  of  ''The  Dream  of 
Youth,"  ''Friendship,"  "Culture  and 
Restraint,"  "Practise  of  Self-Culture," 
"Listening  to  God,"  "Christ's  Service 
of  Love,"  "The  Gift  of  Influence,"  etc. 


130 


THE  ATTRACTION   OF  THE 

PRESENT  ' 

Prof.  Hugh  Black,  D.D. 

"And  Esau  said,  Behold,  I  am  at  the  point  to  die; 
and  what  profit  shall  this  birthright  do  to  me?" — 
Genesis  25  :  32. 

WE  can  not  suppress  a  natural  sympathy 
with  Esau  in  this  scene  between  the 
two  brothers.  He  seems  as  much 
sinned  against  as  sinning,  and  in  comparison 
with  the  cunning,  crafty  character  of  Jacob  he 
appears  the  better  of  the  two.  His  very  faults 
lean  to  virtue's  side,  we  think,  as  we  look  at 
his  bold,  manly,  impulsive  figure.  There  is 
nothing  of  the  cold  calculating  selfishness,  the 
astute  trickery,  the  determination  to  get  his 
pound  of  flesh,  which  make  his  brother  appear 
mean  beside  him.  With  our  swift  and  random 
and  surface  judgments  we  are  inclined  to 
think  it  unjust  that  Esau  should  be  set  aside 
in  the  great  history  of  grace  for  one  who 
could  be  guilty  of  both  malice  and  fraud  in 
advancing  his  own  interests.  We  are  not  at 
present  dealing  with  the  character  of  Jacob 
or  we  would  see  that  this  hasty  judgment,  true 

1  From  ' '  The  Gift  of  Influence, ' '  by  permission  of 
Fleming  H.  Eeveli  Company.     Copyright  1908. 

131 


MODERN    SERMONS 


so  far  as  it  goes,  is  something  less  even  than 
half  the  truth,  and  that  tho  he  here  and 
elsewhere  sinned  and  was  punished  through 
all  his  life  for  his  subtlety  and  selfishness,  yet 
he  was  not  the  monster  of  unbrotherly  malice 
merely  which  this  scene  might  suggest,  and 
that  he  had  qualities  of  heart  and  spirit  which 
made  it  inevitable  that  he,  and  not  Esau, 
should  be  chosen  for  the  line  of  God's  pur- 
pose. Our  subject  is  Esau  and  his  weakness 
and  fall  in  the  presence  of  his  overmastering 
temptation. 

Esau's  good  qualities  are  very  evident,  be- 
ing of  the  kind  easily  recognized  and  easily 
popular  among  men,  the  typical  sportsman 
who  is  only  a  sportsman,  bold  and  frank  and 
free  and  generous,  with  no  intricacies  of 
character,  impulsive  and  capable  of  mag- 
nanimity, the  very  opposite  of  the  prudent, 
dexterous,  nimble  man  of  affairs,  rather  reck- 
less indeed  and  hot-blooded  and  passionate. 
His  virtues  are  already,  we  see,  dangerously 
near  to  being  vices.  Being  largely  a  creature 
of  impulse,  he  was  in  a  crisis  the  mere  play- 
thing of  animal  passion,  ready  to  satisfy 
his  desire  without  thought  of  consequences. 
Without  self-control,  without  spiritual  insight, 
without  capacity  even  to  know  what  spiritual 
issues  were,  judging  things  by  immediate 
profit  and  material  advantage,  there  was  not 
in  him  depth  of  nature  out  of  which  a  really 
noble  character  could  be  cut.     This  damning 

132 


BLACK 


lack  of  self-control  comes  out  in  the  passage 
of  our  text,  the  transaction  of  the  birthright. 
Coming  from  the  hunt  hungry  and  faint,  he 
finds  Jacob  cooking  porridge  of  lentils  and 
asks  for  it.  The  sting  of  ungovernable  ap- 
petite makes  him  feel  as  if  he  would  die  if 
he  did  not  get  it.  Jacob  takes  advantage  of 
his  brother's  appetite  and  offers  to  barter 
his  dish  of  pottage  for  Esau's  birthright. 

There  would  be  some  superstition  in  the 
minds  of  both  of  them  as  to  the  value  of  the 
birthright.  Both  of  them  valued  it  as  a  vague 
advantage,  carrying  with  it  a  religious  worth, 
but  it  meant  nothing  tangible;  and  here  was 
Esau's  temptation,  terribly  strong  to  a  man 
of  his  fiber.  He  was  hungry,  and  before  his 
fierce  desire  for  the  food  actually  before  him 
such  a  thing  as  a  prospective  right  of  birth 
seemed  an  ethereal  thing  of  no  real  value. 
If  he  thought  of  any  spiritual  privilege  the 
birthright  might  be  supposed  to  confer,  it 
Vv'as  only  to  dismiss  the  thought  as  not  worth 
considering.  Spiritual  values  had  not  a  high 
place  in  his  standard  of  things.  He  could 
not  be  unaware  of  the  material  advantages 
the  possession  of  the  birthright  would  one 
day  mean.  He  must  have  known  that  it  was 
something  to  be  recognized  as  the  eldest  son, 
with  special  rights  of  inheritance  and  pre- 
cedence and  authority  after  his  father 's  death. 
These  things  were  real  enough  to  him,  even 
tho   he   might  have  no  notion   of  a   deeper 

133 


MODERN    SERMONS 


meaning  in  being  the  heir  of  the  promise. 
But  in  the  grip  of  his  appetite  even  these 
temporal  advantages  were  too  distant  to  weigh 
much.  In  the  presence  of  immediate  satis- 
faction the  distant  appeared  shadowy  and 
unreal  and  not  worth  sacrificing  present 
enjoyment  for.  He  feels  he  is  going  to  die, 
as  a  man  of  his  type  is  always  sure  he  will 
die  if  he  does  not  get  what  he  wants  when 
the  passion  is  on  him ;  and  supposing  he  does 
die,  it  will  be  poor  consolation  that  he  did 
not  barter  this  intangible  and  shadowy  bless- 
ing of  his  birthright.  ''Behold  I  am  at  the 
point  to  die ;  and  what  profit  shall  this  birth- 
right do  to  me  ? " 

The  Bible  writers  speak  of  Esau  always 
with  a  certain  contempt,  and  with  all  our 
appreciation  of  his  good  natural  qualities, 
his  courage  and  frankness  and  good  humor, 
we  can  not  help  sharing  in  the  contempt. 
The  man  who  has  no  self-control,  who  is 
swept  away  by  every  passion  of  the  moment, 
whose  life  is  bounded  by  sense,  who  has  no 
appreciation  of  the  higher  and  larger  things 
which  call  for  self-control,  that  man  is,  after 
all,  only  a  superior  sort  of  animal,  and  not 
always  so  very  superior  at  that.  The  author 
of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews  calls  Esau  *'a 
profane  person  who  for  one  morsel  of  meat 
sold  his  birthright."  "Profane"  means  not 
blasphemous  but  simply  secular,  a  man  who 
is  not  touched  to  finer  issues,  judging  things 

134 


BLACK 


by  coarse  earthly  standards,  without  spiritual 
aspiration  or  insight,  feeling  every  sting  of 
flesh  keenly,  but  with  no  sting  of  soul  toward 
God.  Bold  and  manly  and  generous  and  with 
many  splendid  constitutional  virtues  he  may 
be,  but  the  man  himself  lacks  susceptibility  to 
the  highest  motives  of  life.  He  is  easily  bent 
by  every  wind  of  impulse,  and  is  open  without 
defense  to  animal  appetite.  He  is  capable 
of  despising  the  intangible  blessing  of  such 
a  thing  as  a  birthright,  even  tho  he  feel  it 
to  be  a  holy  thing,  because  he  can  not  with- 
stand present  need.  A  profane,  a  secular 
person  as  Esau,  is  the  judgment  of  the  New 
Testament. 

The  scene  where  he  surrendered  his  birth- 
right did  not  settle  the  destiny  of  the  two 
brothers — a  compact  like  this  could  not  stand 
good  forever,  and  in  some  magical  way  sub- 
stitute Jacob  for  Esau  in  the  line  of  God's 
great  religious  purpose.  But  this  scene,  tho 
it  did  not  settle  their  destiny  in  that  sense, 
revealed  their  character,  the  one  essential 
thing  which  was  necessary  for  the  spiritual 
succession  to  Abraham ;  and  Esau  failed  here 
in  this  test  as  he  would  fail  anywhere.  His 
question  to  reassure  himself,  "What  profit 
shall  this  birthright  do  to  me?"  reveals  the 
bent  of  his  life  and  explains  his  failure.  True 
self-control  means  willingness  to  resign  the 
small  for  the  sake  of  the  great,  the  present 
for  the  sake  of  the  future,  the  material  for 


135 


MODERN     SERMONS 


the  sake  of  the  spiritual,  and  that  is  what 
faith  makes  possible.  Of  course,  Esau  did 
not  think  he  was  losing  the  great  by  grasping 
at  the  small.  At  the  moment  the  birthright, 
just  because  it  was  distant,  appeared  insig- 
nificant. He  had  no  patience  to  wait,  no 
faith  to  believe  in  the  real  value  of  any- 
thing that  was  not  material,  no  self-restraint 
to  keep  him  from  instant  surrender  to  the  de- 
mand for  present  gratification. 

This  is  the  power  of  all  appeal  to  passion, 
that  it  is  present,  with  us  now,  to  be  had  at 
once.  It  is  clamant,  imperious,  insistent, 
demanding  to  be  satiated  with  what  is  actually 
present.  It  has  no  use  for  a  far-off  good. 
It  wants  immediate  profit.  This  is  tempta- 
tion, alluring  to  the  eye,  whispering  in  the 
ear,  plucking  by  the  elbow,  offering  satis- 
faction now.  Here  and  now — not  hereafter; 
this  thing,  that  red  pottage  there — not  an 
ethereal  unsubstantial  thing  like  a  birthright ! 
What  is  the  good  of  it  if  we  die  ?  And  we  are 
like  to  die  if  we  do  not  get  this  gratification 
the  senses  demand.  In  the  infatuation  of 
appetite  all  else  seems  small  in  comparison; 
the  birthright  is  a  poor  thing  compared  to 
the  red  pottage. 

It  is  the  distortion  of  vision  which  passion 
produces,  the  exaggeration  of  the  present 
which  temptation  creates,  making  the  small 
look  like  the  great,  and  discrediting  the  value 
of  the  thing  lost.     The  vivid  lurid  descrip- 

136 


BLACK 


tion  in  the  Proverbs  of  the  young  man  void 
of  understanding  snared  in  the  street  by  the 
strange  woman  gives  both  these  elements  of 
the  effect  of  passion,  the  weak  surrender  to 
impulse,  and  the  distortion  of  vision  which 
blinds  to  the  real  value  of  what  is  given  up 
for  the  gratification.  "He  goeth  straightway 
as  an  ox  goeth  to  the  slaughter,  till  a  dart 
strike  through  his  liver;  as  a  bird  hasteth  to 
the  snare,  and  knoweth  not  that  it  is  for  his 
life." 

But  it  is  not  merely  lack  of  self-control 
which  Esau  displays  by  the  question  of  our 
text.  It  is  also  lack  of  appreciation  of 
spiritual  values.  In  a  vague  way  he  knew 
that  the  birthright  meant  a  religious  blessing, 
and  in  the  grip  of  his  temptation  that  looked 
to  him  as  purely  a  sentiment,  not  to  be  seri- 
ously considered  as  on  a  par  with  a  material 
advantage.  The  profane  man,  the  secular 
man,  may  not  be  just  a  creature  of  impulse, 
he  may  have  his  impulses  in  good  control,  but 
he  has  no  place  for  what  is  unseen.  He  asks 
naturally,  What  shall  it  profit?  Men  who 
judge  by  the  eye,  by  material  returns  only, 
who  are  frankly  secular,  think  themselves 
great  judges  of  profit,  and  they  too  would 
not  make  much  of  a  birthright  if  it  meant 
only  something  sentimental,  as  they  would 
call  it.  The  real  and  not  the  ideal,  the  actual 
and  not  the  visionary,  the  thing  seen  and 
not  the  thing  unseen — they  would  not  hesitate 


137 


MODERN    SERMONS 


more  than  Esau  over  the  choice  between  the 
pottage  and  the  birthright.  They  judge  by- 
substance,  and  do  not  understand  about  the 
faith  which  is  the  substance  of  things  hoped 
for,  the  evidence  of  things  not  seen. 

How  easy  it  is  for  all  of  us  to  drift  into 
the  class  of  the  profane,  the  secular  persons 
as  Esau;  to  have  our  spiritual  sensibility 
blunted;  to  lose  our  appreciation  of  things 
unseen;  to  be  so  taken  up  with  the  means  of 
living  that  we  forget  life  itself  and  the  things 
that  alone  give  it  security  and  dignity !  How 
easy,  when  soul  wars  with  sense,  to  depreciate 
everything  that  is  beyond  sense,  and  let  the 
whole  moral  tone  be  relaxed!  There  is  much 
cause  for  the  apostle  to  warn  us  to  "Look 
diligently  lest  there  be  among  us  any  pro- 
fane person  as  Esau  who  for  one  morsel  of 
meat  sold  his  birthright." 

We,  too,  can  despise  our  birthright  by  liv- 
ing far  below  our  privileges,  and  far  below 
our  spiritual  opportunities.  We  have  our 
birthright  as  sons  of  God,  born  to  an  inherit- 
ance as  joint-heirs  with  Christ.  We  belong 
by  essential  nature  not  to  the  animal  king- 
dom, but  to  the  kingdom  of  Heaven;  and 
when  we  forget  it  and  live  only  with  reference 
to  the  things  of  sense  and  time,  we  are  disin- 
heriting ourselves  as  Esau  did.  The  secular 
temptation  strikes  a  weak  spot  in  all  of  us, 
suggesting  that  the  spiritual  life,  God's  love 
and  holiness,  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  and  His 

138 


BLACK 


righteousness,  the  life  of  faith  and  prayer 
and  communion,  are  dim  and  shado^vy  things, 
as  in  the  land  that  is  very  far  off.  "What 
profit  shall  this  birthright  do  to  me?" 

What  shall  it  profit?  seems  a  sane  and 
sensible  question,  to  be  considered  in  a  busi- 
nesslike fashion.  It  is  the  right  question  to 
ask,  but  it  has  a  wider  scope  and  another  ap- 
plication. What  profit  the  mess  of  pottage 
if  I  lose  my  birthright?  What  profit  the 
momentary  gratification  of  even  imperious 
passion  if  we  are  resigning  our  true  life,  and 
losing  the  clear  vision  and  the  pure  heart? 
What  profit  to  make  only  provision  for  the 
flesh,  if  of  the  flesh  we  reap  but  corruption? 
What  profit  the  easy  self-indulgence,  if  we 
are  bartering  peace  and  love  and  holiness 
and  joy?  "What  shall  it  profit  a  man  if  he 
shall  gain  the  whole  world  (and  not  merely 
a  contemptible  mess  of  pottage)  and  lose  his 
own  soul?"  What  profit  if  in  the  insistence 
of  appetite  men  go  like  an  ox  to  the  slaughter, 
knowing  not  that  it  is  for  their  life  ?  ' '  Thus 
Esau  despised  his  birthright." 


139 


BLAND 
GOODNESS  FOUND  UNPROFITABLE 


141 


SALEM  GOLDWORTH  BLAND 

Professor  of  Church  history  and  New 
Testament  literature  in  Wesley  College, 
Winnipeg,  since  1903 ;  born  in  1859 ;  edu- 
cated at  different  schools:  Morrin  Col- 
lege, Quebec,  and  McGill  University, 
Montreal;  entered  the  ministry  of  the 
Methodist  Church  of  Canada  in  1880, 
and  occupied  pastorates  in  a  number  of 
the  towns  and  cities  of  eastern  Ontario 
and  Quebec;  D.D.  from  Owen's  Univer- 
sity, Kingston,  in  1903. 


142 


GOODNESS  FOUND  UNPROFITABLE 

S.  G.  Bland,  D.D. 

* '  Verily  I  have  cleansed  my  heart  in  vain,  and  washed 
my  hands  in  innoeency." — Psalm  73  :  13. 

HOW  well  most  of  us  know  that  feeling! 
The  man  in  business  who  has  been 
honest ;  who  has  never  stooped  to  puff- 
ing or  adulterating  or  using  a  sliding  scale 
of  prices;  who  has  disdained  to  flatter  and 
fawn,  to  subscribe  to  things  he  disapproves, 
or  prostitute  his  church-membership  to  gain 
custom,  and  who  sees  the  crowded  store  of 
a  rival  who  will  use  any  means  to  draw  trade 
or  make  a  sale! 

The  candidate  for  public  office,  honorable, 
straightforward,  refusing  to  make  promises 
he  is  not  prepared  to  fulfil,  permitting  no 
bribery,  scorniag  to  appeal  to  party  passion 
or  to  religious  or  racial  animosity,  conducting 
his  canvass  in  a  high-minded  way,  and  left 
far  behind  at  the  polls  by  a  man  who  ''plays 
the  game ' '  and  whose  one  principle  is  to  win ! 

The  conscientious  man  who  loses  his  situa- 
tion because  he  will  not  work  on  Sunday  or 
STv^ear  to  a  false  invoice! 

The  merchant  who  finds  orders  slipping 
away  from  him  because  he  does  not  grease 
the  palm  of  the  agent ! 

143 


MODERN     SERMONS 


The  contractor  whose  tender  is  not  accepted 
because  he  does  not  contribute  to  party  funds ! 

The  boy  or  girl  at  school,  hard-working  and 
honorable,  who  loses  the  prize  to  a  clever 
cheat ! 

Any  one  who  has  tried  to  be  upright  and 
in  a  worldly  sense  has  failed,  and  who  sees, 
as  he  generally  can,  some  one  prospering  who 
has  no  scruples! 

Here,  however,  we  have  need  to  be  careful. 
Our  vanity  may  be  misleading  us.  Not  all 
conscientious  people  who  fail  fail  because  of 
their  conscientiousness,  just  as  not  all  who 
succeed,  tho  not  strictly  upright,  succeed  be- 
cause of  their  want  of  principle.  A  man  may 
be  good  but  unfitted  for  his  business.  A 
man  of  easy  conscience  may  have  fitness  and 
energy.  Vanity  or  pious  sentimentality  must 
not  blind  us  to  the  incompetency  of  some 
sincerely  religious  people. 

It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  there  are 
cases  where  the  piety  has  been  the  stumbling- 
block;  where,  if  the  conscience  had  been  a 
little  more  flexible,  if  the  moral  standard  had 
not  been  so  high,  the  man  would  have  suc- 
ceeded.    Of  such  cases  what  is  to  be  said? 

In  the  very  nature  of  things  goodness  must 
sometimes  meet  with  worldly  failure.  Men 
must  sometimes  cleanse  their  hearts  in  that 
respect  in  vain. 

The  very  condition  of  life  as  a  training- 
school  for  character  is  that  virtue  shall  never 


144 


BLAND 


be  sure  of  earthly  reward.  If  it  were,  all 
would  be  virtuous,  and  the  universal  virtue 
would  be  worth  just  nothing  at  all.  The 
basest  of  all,  those  governed  by  a  coldly  cal- 
culating selfishness,  would  be  of  all  the  most 
virtuous. 

So  in  the  nature  of  things  the  issues  of 
actions  must  be  hidden  from  view.  You  may 
be  promoted  for  your  conscientiousness;  you 
may  be  dismissed.  Integrity  to-day  may  win 
a  friend;  to-morrow  it  may  make  a  lifelong 
enemy.  One  man's  goodness  brings  him  pop- 
ularity and  applause;  another's  brings  him 
the  crown  of  thorns  and  the  cross. 

It  is  well  that  men  should  be  so  tested. 
Not  long  will  any  man  keep  his  hands  clean 
whose  only  motive  in  keeping  them  clean  is 
that  by  a  discerning  public  appreciative  of 
clean  hands  they  may  always  be  kept  full. 
Honesty  is  the  best  policy;  but  he  who  is  for 
that  reason  honest  is  not  honest,  only  politic. 

And  we  may  well  question  the  integrity  of 
a  man  who  is  disappointed  and  bitter  because 
his  integrity  has  not  brought  him  the  return 
he  looked  for.  He  will  not  have  cleansed 
his  hands  or  his  heart  very  thoroughly.  An 
integrity  that  needs  to  be  comforted  and  cos- 
seted all  the  while  by  visible  rewards,  that 
can  only  live  in  the  sunny  genial  atmosphere 
of  success  and  popularity,  is  too  frail  and 
delicate  a  thing  to  be  of  much  worth  in  this 
world. 


I— 10  145 


MODERN     SERMONS 


The  only  man  to  be  depended  on  to  keep  his 
hands  clean  is  the  man  to  whom  cleanness 
of  hands  is  a  good  thing  in  itself. 

Failure  may  be  the  indispensable  condition 
of  goodness.  Sometimes  it  is  the  want  of 
worldly  success  that  keeps  the  hands  clean. 

Elevation  to  the  throne  transformed  the 
modest,  valiant  Saul  into  a  tyrant,  jealous, 
suspicious,  malignant.  The  herdsman  would 
not  have  developed  the  desperate  pride  and 
the  obstinate  self-will  that  make  the  career 
of  Israel's  first  king  the  saddest  tragedy  in 
Old  Testament  history.  The  foul  sin  that 
blotted  so  indelibly  the  reign  of  David  the 
king  would  never  have  stained  the  soul  of 
David  the  shepherd.  If  Solomon  had  been 
poor  he  would  not  have  surrounded  himself 
with  the  splendor  and  the  voluptuousness  that 
quenched  his  radiant  morning  in  so  dreary 
a  night. 

That  political  honor,  that  flourishing  busi- 
ness, that  social  success — what  effect  would 
it  have  had  upon  the  character?  Is  there  not 
a  sufficiently  clear  answer  in  the  fact  that 
that  was  the  last  thing  considered,  if,  indeed, 
it  was  considered  at  all? 

It  is  generally  supposed  to  be  easier  to  be 
honest  when  rich,  but  wealth  and  success  have 
more  searching  temptations  than  those  they 
deliver  from.  The  most  perilous  of  all  tempta- 
tions is  the  temptation  to  pride.  The  hardest 
class  for  the  gospel  of  Christ  to  reach  is  that 

146 


BLAND 


of  those  who  count  themselves  self-made  men. 
They  are  in  greater  peril  than  men  of  strong 
animal  passions  or  of  infirm  will.  No  man 
is  so  near  great  failure  as  he  who  has  at- 
tained great  success.  Against  some  of  the 
most  wholesome  and  corrective  influences  of 
life  wealth  is  a  strong  castle. 

A  man  of  great  wealth  died  in  our  own 
time  of  whom  a  newspaper  of  high  reputa- 
tion reported  that  he  said  not  long  before 
his  death,  "I  have  done  everything  I  tried 
to  do.  I  have  realized  all  my  ideals.  I  am 
satisfied  with  my  life."  If  the  words  were 
really  his,  which  is  difficult  to  believe,  and 
if  he  really  meant  them,  which  is  still  more 
difficult  to  believe,  one  can  only  say  that  that 
man  of  great  wealth  and  power  would  have 
probably  ended  his  days  nearer  God  if  he 
had  ended  them  in  a  penitentiary.  There, 
at  least,  he  would  not  have  been  conscious  of 
having  realized  all  his  ideals. 

Paul  said  he  had  learned  "both  how  to  be 
abased"  and  "how  to  abound."  The  latter 
is  the  harder  lesson  to  learn. 

Men  who  profit  by  clean  hands  will  never 
save  the  world.  It  is  fitting  and  right  that 
integritj^  should  be  rewarded.  It  is  pleasant, 
to  see  godly  people  succeed.  But  the  integ- 
rity that  succeeds  in  a  worldly  sense  will 
never  save  the  world.  It  will  not  silence 
the  ancient  sneer,  "Doth  Job  fear  God  for 
naught?" 

147 


MODERN     SERMONS 


Any  number  of  people  who  are  somewhat 
slippery  will  tell  you  they  are  willing,  nay 
wishful,  to  be  honest  and  truthful  and  con- 
scientious, if  only  they  are  properly  remu- 
nerated for  being  so.  "Pay  me  well  and  I'll 
be  honest,"  laughingly  said  a  friend  of  mine 
to  a  board  of  directors  who  were  thinking 
of  appointing  him  to  a  highly  responsible 
position,  and  the  jesting  remark  has  its  phi- 
losophy. 

The  incorruptible  and  paying  honesty  has 
its  value,  no  doubt,  but  it  is  not  inspiring. 
It  is  "the  incorruptible  and  losing  honesty" 
(to  borrow  Charles  Lamb's  fine  phrase  from 
his  eulogy  on  his  father),  the  conscientious- 
ness that  trips  a  man,  the  integrity  that  pulls 
down  disaster,  the  truth  that  leads  to  the  cross 
— this  is  what  silences  the  sneer  and  strikes 
the  world  with  awe  and  keeps  faith  alive  on 
the  earth. 

"Heaven  is  for  those  who  have  failed  on 
earth."  That  is  a  noble  truth,  but  it  is  de- 
sirable that  such  failures  should  be  kept  from 
their  natural  destination  as  long  as  possible, 
for  they  are  the  salt  of  the  earth,  the  soul 
of  all  its  goodness,  the  very  spring  of  moral 
progress.  Of  all  its  benefactors  the  world 
owes  most  to  its  martyrs. 

It  is  a  small  thing  that  you  have  not  made 
as  many  dollars  as  you  might,  if  you  have 
helped  your  fellow  men  to  believe  in  dis- 
interestedness.   Depend  upon  it,  if  your  god- 

148 


BLAND 


liness  makes  you  fail  your  failure  will  be 
worth  far  more  to  the  world  than  your  success. 

All  the  great  reforms  of  the  world's  history 
have  been  won  by  men  who  failed.  Half  a 
century  ago  there  were  none  in  the  United 
States  so  far  from  honor  as  the  Abolitionists. 
They  were  denounced,  ostracized,  pelted, 
mobbed,  tarred  and  feathered;  some  of  them 
were  murdered.  John  Brown's  attempt  with 
eighteen  men  to  free  the  slaves  was  a  failure 
that  would  have  seemed  farcical  had  it  not 
been  so  tragical.  Yet  when  Abraham  Lin- 
coln signed  the  Proclamation  of  Emancipa- 
tion, it  was  John  Brown  and  the  Abolitionists 
who  guided  the  pen. 

But  we  have  only  dealt  with  one  side  of 
this  question.  Two  things,  at  least,  are  to 
be  said  on  the  other  side.  The  first  is  this, 
that  most  people  do  not  even  in  the  lowest 
sense  cleanse  their  hands  in  vain.  Goodness 
does  not  generally  involve  failure.  To  think 
that  it  does  is  to  believe  one  of  the  de^dl's 
lies. 

Righteousness  tends  to  prosperity  as  it 
tends  to  health  and  longevity.  It  would,  no 
doubt,  be  a  mistake  for  a  young  man  starting 
in  life  to  think  that  a  Christian  life  guar- 
antees worldly  success.  It  is  a  still  graver 
mistake  to  think  that  Christian  principle  will 
handicap  him. 

Take  a  hundred  God-fearing  young  men 
at  twenty-five,  and  another  hundred  godless 

149 


MODERN     SERMONS 


men  of  the  same  age,  all  of  them  starting 
alike,  with  no  capital  but  their  brains  and 
their  character,  and  watch  them,  not  for  one 
year,  nor  perhaps  for  five,  but  for  ten,  for 
twenty,  and  then  compare  them.  Is  there 
any  man  who  has  observed  human  life  care- 
fully for  twenty  years  who  doubts  which 
group  will  possess  the  more  wealth  or  fill 
the  greater  number  of  positions  of  trust  and 
influence. 

Let  the  investigation  be  made  in  our  great 
cities  to-day,  and  it  will  be  discovered,  as  it 
has  been  discovered  in  similar  investigations 
before,  that  the  greater  portion  of  their  wealth 
and  the  most  of  the  chief  positions  of  honor 
are  in  the  hands  of  members  of  Christian 
churches.  Some  of  these,  no  doubt,  have  suf- 
fered from  their  very  success.  But  the  fact 
remains  that  wealth  gravitates  in  the  long 
run  to  men  of  character. 

It  is  a  very  narrow  and  short-sighted  vision 
that  envies  the  unrighteous.  ''Let  not  thine 
heart  envy  sinners:  but  be  thou  in  the  fear 
of  the  Lord  all  the  day  long :  for  surely  there 
is  a  sequel"  (Prov.  23:  17,  18,  marginal  read- 
ing). Ay,  a  sequel,  a  second  volume.  The 
biographies  of  men  are  not  always  written 
in  one  volume,  not  always  in  two.  ''I  have 
seen  the  wicked  in  great  power  and  spreading 
himself  like  a  green  tree  in  its  native  soil." 
So  rapid  and  stately  and  seemingly  enduring 
a  growth  and  yet  so  evil!    He  fixed  all  eyes, 

150 


BLAND 


some  in  admiration,  some  in  envy,  some  in 
dismay.  But  something  drew  your  gaze  away, 
and  when  you  looked  again  at  the  wide- 
spreading  tree,  to  your  amazement  it  was  not 
to  be  seen.  You  rubbed  your  eyes,  you 
searched  diligently.  But  no,  "it  could  not  be 
found." 

Nothing  is  so  profitable  as  lying  and  cheat- 
ing— for  a  little  while.  The  wisdom  of  the 
ages  is  in  the  familiar  lines, 

Tho  the  mills  of  God  grind  slowly, 
Yet  they  grind  exceeding  small; 

Tho  with  patience  He  stands  waiting, 
With  exactness  grinds  He  all. 

And  the  second  thing  to  be  said  on  this 
other  side  is  this,  that  as  goodness  does  not 
generally  involve  failure,  so  evil  generally 
does. 

There  may  possibly  be  a  darting  pang  in 
the  thought,  ''I  have  cleansed  my  heart, 
washed  my  hands  in  vain,"  but  what  com- 
pared with  the  enduring  and  corroding  bit- 
terness of  the  thought,  "I  have  dabbled  my 
hands  in  filth,  defiled  my  heart  in  vain ! ' ' 

To  do  violence  to  one's  sense  of  right,  to 
make  oneself  mean  to  oneself,  to  every  right- 
thinking  man,  to  besmirch  one's  own  reputa- 
tion, to  lie,  to  cheat,  to  be  two-faced,  to  crawl 
snake-like  on  one's  face  in  the  dust,  and  then, 
after  all,  to  fail — that  is  to  drink  the  last 
dregs  of  bitterness. 

151 


MODERN     SERMONS 


One  of  the  most  towering  figures  in  the 
history  of  the  United  States  is  that  of  Daniel 
Webster,  called  by  his  admirers  ''the  god- 
like," and  of  so  majestic  an  intellect  and 
presence  as  almost  to  justify  the  daring  epi- 
thet. One  of  the  great  orators  of  all  lands 
and  ages,  he  ruled  men  with  more  than  kingly 
power. 

To  him  came  the  dream  of  the  Presidency, 
and  for  that  prize  he  sold  himself.  It  seemed 
unattainable  except  with  the  support  of  the 
slaveholding  South.  To  secure  that  support, 
he,  the  son  of  free-soil  New  England,  scoffed 
at  the  Abolitionists,  derided  the  anti-slavery 
doctrine,  stood  forth  as  the  defender  of  sla- 
very, the  fugitive  slave  law,  and  the  gag. 

"His  character,"  writes  Goldwin  Smith,  "to 
which  friends  of  freedom  in  the  North  had 
long  looked  up,  fell  with  a  crash  like  that  of 
a  mighty  tree,  of  a  lofty  pillar,  of  a  rock  that 
for  ages  had  breasted  the  waves — 

''So  fallen,  so  lost"  (mourned  Whittier)  ; 
''The  light  withdrawn 
Which  once  he  wore, 

The  glory  from  his  gray  hairs  gone 
Forever  more. ' ' 

He  did  not  receive  even  the  nomination  of 
his  party.  Deeply  disappointed,  his  health 
and  his  spirits  gave  way,  and  he  retired  to 
his  home  to  die. 

The  British  East  India  Company,  while  it 

152 


BLAND 


ruled  India,  was  timorously  apprehensive  of 
exciting  the  suspicion  or  antagonism  of  the 
natives.  Under  this  fear  it  showed  such 
shame  of  its  Christianity  as  Mohammedan 
conquerors  of  India  had  never  shown  of  their 
Mohammedanism.  It  excluded  missionaries 
as  long  as  possible,  and  did  all  it  could  to  im- 
pede and  discourage  their  work  when  they  at 
last  found  entrance.  It  subsidized  idol  temples 
and  lent  British  troops  to  do  honor  to  idola- 
trous and  obscene  ceremonies.  It  petted  and 
pampered  the  sepoys,  discharging  any  of  them 
who  became  Christians,  so  that  in  1857  there 
was  not  a  native  Christian  in  the  employ- 
ment of  the  Indian  government.  And  all 
its  cowardice  was  in  vain,  and  the  torrent  of 
flame  and  blood  that  inundated  the  Northwest 
provinces  and  Central  India  in  the  awful 
summer  of  1857  showed  the  very  devil's  scorn 
of  such  methods   of   establishment. 

What  is  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  matter 
but  this — that  a  man  should  aim  at  honorable 
success,  but  be  prepared  for  still  more  hon- 
orable failure? 

Let  "never  say  fail"  be  his  motto,  where 
pluck  and  hard  work  and  perseverance  and 
ingenuity  can  win,  but  let  him  say  ''fail" 
the  moment  he  is  asked  to  pay  the  devil's 
price  for  success.  No  man  is  prepared  to 
live  who  is  not  prepared  at  any  time  to  die, 
and  no  man  is  fit  for  success  who  is  not  pre- 
pared to  accept  failure. 

153 


BLOMFIELD 

THE  IMPERATIVE  CLAIMS  OF  CHRIST 
UPON  HIS  FOLLOWERS 


155 


WILLIAM    ERNEST    BLOMFIELD 

President  of  the  Baptist  College,  Raw- 
don,  Leeds,  since  1904;  born  Rayleigh, 
Essex,  England,  October  23,  1862;  edu- 
cated at  the  nonconformist  gi*ammar 
school,  Regents  Park  College,  London; 
graduated  London  LTniversity  (B.A.), 
1883;  assistant  minister  of  Elm  Road 
Baptist  church,  Beckenham;  sole  minis- 
ter, 1885,6;  minister  of  Turret  Green 
church,  Ipswich,  1886-95;  graduated 
(B.D.)  at  St.  Andrew's  University,  1892; 
minister  of  Queen 's  Road  church,  Coven- 
try, 1895-1904;  received  diploma,  fellow 
of  Senatus  Academicus,  1898,  for  pro- 
ficiency in  knowledge  of  Hebrew  and 
Greek  Testaments. 


156 


THE  IMPERATIVE  CLAIMS  OF 
CHRIST  UPON  HIS  FOLLOWERS 

W.  E.  Blomfield,  B.A.,  B.D. 

''And  it  came  to  pass,  that,  as  they  went  in  the 
way,  a  certain  man  said  uni  him,  Lord,  I  will  fol- 
low thee  whithersoever  thou  goest.  And  Jesus  said 
unto  him.  Foxes  have  holes,  and  birds  of  the  air 
have  nests;  hut  the  Son  of  man  hath  not  where  to 
lay  his  head.  And  he  said  unto  another.  Follow  me. 
But  he  said,  Lord,  suffer  me  first  to  go  and  hury  my 
father.  Jesus  said  unto  him.  Let  the  dead  bury 
their  dead:  but  go  thou  a. A  preach  the  kingdom  of 
God.  And  another  also  said,  Lord,  I  will  follow  thee; 
but  let  me  first  go  bid  them  farewell  which  are  at 
home  at  my  house.  And  Jesus  said  unto  him,  No 
man,  having  put  his  hand  to  the  plough,  and  look- 
ing bacJc,  is  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  God." — Luke  9  : 
57-62. 

WE  have  a  parallel  to  this  narrative  in 
Matthew's  Gospel.  There  are,  how- 
ever, two  points  of  divergence  from 
Luke's  version.  There  is  no  mention  of  the 
third  would-be  disciple,  and  what  is  still 
more  worthy  of  observation,  the  historic  set- 
ting of  the  narrative  is  absolutely  different.  In 
Matthew  the  incidents  take  place  early  in  the 
Galilean  ministry,  in  Luke  they  are  found 
when  that  ministry  had  definitely  closed.  It 
is  quite  impossible  to  reconcile  the  two  evan- 
gelists, and  I  think  we  may  regard  Luke's 
setting  of  the  story  as  likely  to  be  the  more 


I 


157 


MODERN     SERMONS 


accurate.  To  Matthew  the  question  of  chrono- 
logical sequenc3  was  one  of  subordinate  im- 
portance. His  mind  and  heart  were  arrested 
by  the  sayings  of  Jesus,  and  they  are  every- 
thing to  him.  Accordingly,  in  the  Sermon 
on  the  Mount,  he  groups  together  logia  which 
may  have  been  spoken  on  divers  occasions, 
and  in  the  thirteenth  chapter  he  gives  us  a 
string  of  seven  parables  which  few  intelligent 
readers  can  think  were  spoken  at  one  and  the 
same  time.  Luke  was  more  of  the  historian, 
and  tells  us  in  the  preface  to  his  gospel  that 
it  was  his  purpose  "to  write  in  order."  We 
accept,  then,  the  sequence  of  events  as  nar- 
rated in  this  chapter.  And  if  we  grasp  the 
situation  here  revealed  we  shall  understand 
more  clearly  the  sternness  and  severity  with 
which  Jesus  addrest  these  men  about  whom 
I  want  to  speak. 

Our  Lord  had  ended  His  Galilean  ministry. 
A  definite  crisis  is  marked  by  verse  51.  He 
set  His  face  stedfastly  to  go  to  Jerusalem. 
Mark,  according  to  his  wont,  gives  us  a  still 
more  striking  picture.  Jesus  strode  in  front 
of  His  disciples,  and  as  they  followed  they 
were  amazed  and  afraid.  A  great  fear  and 
awe  fell  upon  them  as  they  looked  upon  the 
resolute  Savior  hastening  to  meet  His  cross. 
It  was  amid  the  feelings  aw^akened  by  such  a 
crisis  that  these  three  men  met  Christ.  Will 
they  become  His  disciples?  Have  they  some 
good  thing  in  their  hearts  toward  Him  ?  Then 

158 


BLOMFIELD 


let  them  at  once  translate  thought  into  de- 
cisive action.  It  was  no  time  for  temporizing 
and  delay.  Jesus  needed  men  who  under- 
stood the  hour  and  its  solemn  call.  Half- 
hearted disciples,  followers  who  had  a  mere 
sentimental  liking  for  Him  but  who  gave  the 
"first"  place  to  any  other  interest,  were  of 
no  use  to  His  kingdom.  He  must  have  men 
who,  for  weal  or  wo,  without  reserve  or  hesi- 
tation, yet  with  knowledge  and  intelligence, 
would  follow  in  His  train.  Decision  firm  and 
irrevocable  must  now  be  made.  Never  more 
would  Christ  pass  this  way.  Thus  bearing 
in  mind  the  gravity  of  the  crisis,  we  shall 
find  some  clue  to  the  hard  sayings  in  our 
text.  Here  are  three  men.  The  first  brings 
Christ  an  unconditional  offer  of  allegiance, 
and  is  repelled.  The  second  is  called  by  Christ 
to  a  great  work  and  the  reluctance  shown  by 
the  man  is  rebuked.  The  third  is  a  volunteer, 
but  a  double-minded  man  who  has  to  be 
sharply  reminded  that  thoroughness  is  an 
essential  requisite  for  service  in  the  kingdom. 
And  we  may  see  here  three  permanent  types 
of  human  character — the  impulsive,  the  dif- 
fident, the  irresolute. 

"Lord,  I  will  follow  thee  whithersoever 
thou  goest."  It  was  a  fine  offer.  There  was 
no  reserve  or  limit  to  it.  Jesus  had  not  many 
such,  and  we  might  suppose  that  He  would 
have  promptly  accepted  the  allegiance  of 
this    generous    heart.      One    feature    of    the 

159 


MODERN     SERMONS 


heavenly  life  is  that  the  Lamb's  servants  fol- 
low "whithersoever  he  leadeth. "  Here  is  a 
man  who  is  ready  to  begin  the  heavenly  life 
of  perfect  surrender  on  earth.  Yet  the  volun- 
teer is  met  with  the  chilling  rejoinder,  "Foxes 
have  holes,  the  birds  of  heaven  have  nests, 
but  the  Son  of  man  has  not  where  to  lay  his 
head." 

There  is  not  a  trace  of  insincerity  in  the 
man.  Nor  is  there  any  sign  that  he  was 
filled  with  self-complacency  at  the  splendor 
of  his  own  deed.  All  seems  genuine  and  mod- 
est enough.  But  Christ's  answer  reveals  a 
m'an  who  was  easily  swayed  by  the  feeling 
of  the  moment,  who  would  be  the  victim  of 
any  sudden  impulse,  easily  moved  by  super- 
ficial excitement  to  the  utterance  of  tremen- 
dous words  whose  implications  he  had  never 
realized.  He  was  simply  thoughtless,  the 
kind  of  man  who  would  begin  to  build  with- 
out first  considering  if  he  had  wherewith  to 
complete  the  costly  enterprise.  And  so  Jesus 
flings  him  back  upon  himself  and  bids  him 
reflect.  The  man  had  been  attracted  by  our 
Lord  as  many  amiable  people  are  attracted 
to-day.  He  had  sat  perhaps  among  the  moun- 
tain lilies  and  listened  to  those  wonderful 
beatitudes,  or  he  had  stood  by  the  lake  with 
the  summer  sun  gleaming  upon  its  waters  as 
Jesus  taught  the  multitudes  from  the  boat, 
or  he  had  heard  of  the  wondrous  works  of 
Him  who  rebuked  the  storm  and  the  angrier 


160 


BLOMFIELD 


passions  which  rage  in  human  breasts.  The 
rapt  face  of  the  young  Prophet  of  Nazareth 
and  His  words  of  wisdom  and  grace  had  been 
an  irresistible  spell  upon  this  open,  ingenuous 
nature.  He  would  fain  follow  Him  and  listen 
to  the  flow  of  golden  speech  every  day,  and 
so  he  cries,  ''Lord,  I  will  follow  thee  whither- 
soever thou  goest. ' '  But  Christ  knew  the  shal- 
lowness of  this  man's  religion.  In  effect  He 
says,  ' '  Understandest  thou  what  thou  say  est  ? 
Wilt  thou  indeed  follow  me  whithersoever  I 
lead?  My  way  is  not  always  amongst  flower- 
clad  hills  nor  by  the  quiet  lakeside;  it  leads 
sometimes  into  the  w^ilderness  and  amidst 
stony  paths  w^here  the  feet  ache  and  bleed. 
Even  nov7  the  Master  thou  w^ouldst  serve  goes 
to  meet  a  cruel  doom  at  the  hands  of  men. 
Wilt  thou  follow  Him  there  and  share  His 
cup  of  pain  ?  It  is  no  light  thing  for  a  scribe 
accustomed  to  a  life  of  cultured  ease  to  be- 
come the  follower  of  One  who  is  a  homeless 
fugitive  upon  the  face  of  the  earth."  This 
was  not  the  only  time  Jesus  checked  emotional 
excitability.  Once  w^hen  He  was  preaching, 
a  woman,  carried  away  by  His  personal  charm, 
exclaimed,  "Blessed  is  the  womb  that  bare 
thee,  and  the  paps  which  thou  hast  sucked." 
And  He  met  this  gush  of  sentiment  with  the 
quiet  answer,  ''Yea,  rather  blessed  are  they 
that  hear  the  word  of  God  and  keep  it."  On 
another  occasion  He  saw  the  multitudes  fol- 
lowing Him,  and  He  turned  and  said,    "If 


i-n  161 


MODERN     SERMONS 


any  man  cometh  to  me  and  hateth  not  his 
father,  mother,  wife,  brethren,  sisters,  yea, 
and  his  own  life  also,  he  can  not  be  my  dis- 
ciple.'\ 

Herein  I  see  the  kindness  of  Christ.  He 
would  save  a  man  from  the  pain  and  humilia- 
tion which  ever  come  to  him  who  begins  a 
high  enterprise  whose  difficulties  and  disap- 
pointments he  has  neither  gaged  nor  sus- 
pected. Is  there  any  picture  more  pitiable 
in  Bunyan's  ayegory  than  that  of  Pliable, 
who  had  thoughtlessly  set  out  on  pilgrimage, 
and  who  at  last  is  found  sneaking  among  his 
former  companions,  his  own  self-respect  gone, 
and  himself  the  object  of  their  mockery  and 
contempt?  It  had  been  better  for  him  not 
to  have  known  the  way  of  life  than,  having 
known  it,  to  depart  from  the  way  of  righte- 
ousness. 

Not  less  clear  is  the  wisdom  of  Christ's 
candor.  Much  as  He  suffered  when  men  went 
back  and  walked  no  more  with  Him,  it  were 
better  so  than  that  they  should  follow  Him 
u^der  illusions.  Fair-weather  disciples  are 
out  of  place  in  a  kingdom  where  patient  en- 
durance is  an  inexorable  necessity.  The 
failure  of  this  type  of  character  is  graphically 
depicted  in  the  parable  of  the  sower.  These 
are  they  who  hear  the  word  and — alas  for 
the  fatal  word ! — immediately  with  joy  receive 
it.  Yet  have  they  no  root  in  themselves,  but 
are   only   temporary,    and   when   tribulation 

162 


BLOMFIELD 


or  persecution  arise  because  of  the  word,  im- 
mediately— the  declension  is  as  swift  as  the 
profession — they  are  made  to  stumble.  The 
reminder  is  not  an  untimely  one  for  these 
days  of  revival.  ' '  A  man  who  is  touched  only 
on  the  surface  of  his  soul  by  a  religious  move- 
ment and  has  yielded  to  the  current  without 
understanding  what  it  means,  whither  it  tends, 
and  what  it  involves,  is  doomed  to  apostasy 
in  the  season  of  trial.  When  the  tide  of  en- 
thusiasm subsides  and  he  is  left  to  himself  to 
carry  on  single-handed  the  struggle  with 
temptation,  he  has  no  heart  for  the  work,  and 
his  religion  withers  like  the  corn  growing  on 
rocky  places  under  the  scorching  heat  of  the 
summer  sun"  (Bruce).  Therefore,  count  the 
cost  before  thou  takest  upon  thy  lips  so  great 
a  pledge  as  this:  "Lord,  I  will  follow  thee 
whithersoever  thou  goest. " 

The  diffident  man  is  another  type  of  char- 
acter. He  does  not  proffer  his  allegiance. 
He  is  timid  and  shy  in  the  presence  of  great 
dem.ands  and  heroic  tasks.  Jesus  has  looked 
into  the  soul  of  this  man  and  seen  the  stuff 
of  which  apostles,  missionaries,  confessors  and 
martyrs  are  made.  And  He  summons  him  to 
the  sublime  work  of  preaching  the  gospel  of 
the  kingdom.  The  retiring  man  pleads  home 
duties.  Elsewhere  we  read  of  one  who  had 
married  a  wife,  and  therefore  could  not  come. 
Here  w^e  have  a  man  who  pleads  the  claims  of 
filial  piety.     "Suffer  me  first  to  go  and  bury 

163 


MODERN     SERMONS 


my  father."  The  ordinary  interpretation  of 
these  words  is  that  this  man 's  father  was  dead, 
and  that  he  simply  sought  permission  to  wait 
till  the  funeral  was  over.  It  may  be  so,  or 
it  may  be  that  this  was  a  proverbial  way  of 
sacrificing  Christ  to  the  claims  of  family  af- 
fection. He  shrinks  from  the  high  calling 
and  excuses  himself  by  saying  that  there  are 
ordinary  every-day  duties  to  be  done.  It  is 
an  Eastern  way  of  declaring  that  other  claims 
take  precedence  of  some  great  demand  made 
upon  him,  and  he  says  that  he  will  obey  when 
he  has  buried  his  father.  Take  it  in  either 
sense,  the  word  of  Christ  is  clear,  and  the 
principle  on  which  it  is  based  is  indisputable. 
There  are  crises  in  life  when  the  duty  of  bury- 
ing one's  father  must  be  subordinated  to  a 
more  imperious  call.  "When  in  the  hour  of 
an  empire's  peril,  the  summons  comes  to  a 
soldier  to  fight  his  country's  battle,  his  oath 
to  his  king  must  be  preferred  before  piety 
to  parents,  however  right  and  beautiful  that 
may  be  under  ordinary  circumstances.  Christ 
always  claims  to  stand  first.  Whoever  loves 
father  or  mother  more  than  Him  is  not  worthy 
of  Him.  Not  that  He  was  indifferent  to  the 
sacred  ties  of  home  life.  In  His  own  mortal 
agony  He  commended  Mary  to  the  beloved 
disciple.  In  the  chapter  immediately  before 
that  from  which  my  text  is  taken,  He  claimed 
the  right  to  send  a  man  home  to  be  a  mis- 
sionary there  when  the  man  would  fain  have 

164 


BLOMFIELD 


remained  at  His  side.  Christ  claims  the  rights 
of  absolute  ownership  over  every  one  of  us. 
And  surely  this  fact  leads  to  faith  in  His 
higher  nature.  No  one  man  of  a  particular 
race  and  age  can  be  the  one  absolute  authority 
for  all  men  of  all  ages  and  all  races  unless  he 
is  something  more  than  man,  however  great 
and  good.  What  think  ye  of  Christ?  Who 
is  He  that  He  may  command  us  all  as  He  wills 
and  look  for  our  unhesitating  and  unreserved 
obedience  ? 

Consider,  too,  the  principle  of  Christ's 
answer  to  this  man.  "Let  the  dead  bury  their 
ow^n  dead."  Let  those  who  have  no  spiritual 
life  in  them  attend  to  the  tasks  which  need 
no  spiritual  life  for  their  discharge,  but  let 
the  man  who  is  fitted  for  high  work  which 
only  a  rare  soul  can  accomplish  devote  him- 
self to  it  as  to  his  heaven-appointed  mission. 
This  has  been  called  Christ's  law  of  economy 
in  the  service  of  the  kingdom.  Every  man 
is  bound  to  serve  where  he  can  be  and  do  the 
most  for  his  king.  He  must  trade  with  his 
pound  and  make  it  yield  all  that  is  possible. 
If  one  has  in  him  the  capacity  of  a  great 
statesman — ah,  what  would  we  not  give  for 
such  an  one  at  the  present  hour! — he  has  no 
right  to  be  follovv'ing  the  plow.  If  a  young 
man  is  gifted  with  the  spiritual  vision  and 
power  of  expression  which  made  the  prophet 
of  the  Lord,  he  is  guilty  of  unholy  waste  if 
he   stands   behind   a   counter   measuring   off 

165 


MODERN    SERMONS 


calico.  It  is  related  of  the  late  Dr.  Parker 
that  he  said:  ''I  came  early  to  the  conclTisioii 
that  the  Almighty  did  not  intend  me  to  carry 
bricks  and  mortar  up  a  ladder."  He  was 
right.  Not  that  these  tasks  are  common  or 
unclean. 

Who  sweeps  a  room  as  for  thy  laws, 
Makes  that  and  the  action  fine. 

But  myriads  can  attend  to  these  duties,  while 
the  statesman,  the  missionary,  the  preacher, 
are  few  and  far  to  seek.  Do  I  speak  to  any 
man  who  has  heard  Christ's  call  to  preach 
the  gospel  of  the  kingdom?  It  is  not  for  us 
to  run  unless  we  are  bidden.  No  man  taketh 
this  honor  to  himself  but  he  that  is  called 
of  God.  If,  however,  thou  hast  heard  the 
voice  of  Jesus,  I  would  pray  that  thou  mayest 
have  no  rest  till  thou  hast  yielded  Him 
obedience.  Listen  to  His  own  word:  *'Let 
the  dead  bury  their  own  dead,  but  go  thou 
and  publish  abroad  the  kingdom  of  God." 

The  irresolute  man  is  he  who  said,  "Lord, 
I  will  follow  thee,  but  let  me  first  bid  them 
farewell  who  are  at  my  house. ' '  The  natural 
request  was  met  with  what  seems  an  unreason- 
able answer.  A  similar  petition  was  made 
by  Elisha  to  Elijah  when  he  was  called  to 
the  prophetic  office.  And  Elijah  granted  it. 
Is  Elijah  more  considerate  and  human  than 
Jesus!  We  must  look  beneath  the  surface. 
Martin  Luther  says,  in  commenting  upon  this 

166 


BLOMFIELD 


verse,  ''The  New  Testament  was  written  for 
men  with  heads  upon  their  shoulders." 
Elijah  granted  the  request  because  it  was  safe 
to  grant  it.  Jesus  saw  here  a  man  easily  led 
away,  to  whom  the  farewell  visit  would  be 
fatal.  Once  in  the  family  circle  all  kinds  of 
obstacles  would  be  put  in  his  way ;  tender  re- 
proaches and  tearful  pleadings  would  be 
leveled  against  his  resolve;  heart-moving  pic- 
tures would  be  put  before  him  of  the  perils 
which  must  attend  the  man  who  was  wild 
enough  to  throw  in  his  lot  with  Jesus  of 
Nazareth.  And  under  the  warmth  of  home 
affection  his  little  courage  would  melt  away. 
To  go  home  would  be  to  say  farewell  to  the 
kingdom  forever.  Therefore,  in  a  graphic 
way,  our  Lord  reminds  this  volunteer  that 
half-hearted  men  are  useless  in  the  service  of 
God.  He  who  puts  his  hand  to  the  plow  must 
give  eye  and  mind  to  his  work  or  he  will  be 
the  derision  of  the  field  when  the  furrow  is 
complete.  Even  with  our  heavy  instruments 
drawn  by  two  horses  (sometimes  more  intelli- 
gent than  the  man  behind)  attention  to  the 
business  in  hand  is  essential  to  success.  But 
with  the  Hebrew  plow  of  much  lighter  con- 
struction, with  only  one  stilt  to  guide  it,  leav- 
ing the  other  hand  free  to  use  the  goad  to  the 
often  untractable  ox,  undivided  interest  was 
indispensable. 

Let  us  lay  to  heart  the  truth.     The  half- 
hearted are  not  fit  for  the  kingdom  of  God. 

167 


MODERN     SERMONS 


Are  they  fit  for  any  kingdom  worth  the  hav- 
ing? No  man  can  make  a  scholar  who  is  not 
prepared  to  scorn  delights  and  live  laborious 
days.  No  young  man  will  be  successful  in 
business  if  his  chief  thought  all  day  is  of  the 
hour  when  he  may  escape  from  the  office  to 
his  football  or  golf.  Ay,  no  man  can  be  a 
king  in  the  sphere  of  athletics  unless  he  is 
prepared  to  pay  the  price  of  self-control  and 
severe  training.  How,  then,  should  we  be 
fit  for  the  highest  kingdom  if,  while  we  pro- 
fess to  be  Christ's,  our  hearts  are  not  wholly 
His  but  v/ith  the  world?  Yes,  it  is  hard  to  be 
a  Christian.  And  the  Lord  in  very  kindness 
and  truth  tells  us  that  nothing  less  than 
personal  devotion  to  Himself  will  carry  us 
through.  There  are  hours  in  life  when  we 
have  to  learn  with  pain  the  lesson  of  forget- 
ting the  past.  Bright  and  beautiful  and  not 
unholy  as  it  was,  we  may  not  nurse  and  fondle 
it,  for  God  has  called  us  to  a  new  work  which 
demands  all  our  strength,  and  there  may  not 
be  a  look  behind.  The  Master  here  spoke  out 
of  the  depth  of  His  own  experience.  His  face 
was  now  set  to  Jeruselem.  Behind  Him  lay 
the  happy  home  of  Nazareth,  and  warm  hearts 
and  kindly  friends  were  in  the  northern  prov- 
ince. It  was  not  easy  to  turn  to  the  unloving 
city,  and  Peter  souglit  to  dissuade  Him  from 
the  sorrow  and  suffering  which  lay  in  His 
God-appointed  path.  But  the  well-meant  en- 
treaty was  rejected  as  a  temptation  from  hell. 

168 


BLOMFIELD 


It  was  a  temptation  to  look  back.  He  could 
not  afford  to  palter  with  it,  to  give  it  lodgment 
for  one  moment.  How  much  less  may  we? 
Has  the  world  been  gaining  too  much  influ- 
ence over  us  ?  Has  its  spell  weakened  our  hold 
of  the  plow  ?  Then  let  us  look  to  Him  who  can 
reenforce  our  will  and  give  us  a  single  heart. 
The  sorrow  of  looking  back  is  this,  that  it 
never  ends  there.  In  the  long  run  it  means  go- 
ing back  from  the  plow  altogether.  "Demas 
hath  forsaken  me,  having  loved  this  present 
world. ' '  It  can  not  be  otherwise.  That  love  of 
the  world  is  the  backward  look,  which,  persist- 
ed in,  issues  in  apostasy.  Consider  Him  who 
endured  to  the  end  lest  ye  be  weary  and  faint 
in  your  mind.  Pray  to  Him  who  giveth  power 
to  the  faint.  Then  grip  the  plow  more 
earnestly,  and  press  on.  Be  not  of  them  who 
draw  back  unto  perdition  and  in  whom  God 
has  no  pleasure,  rather  aspire  to  be  of  that 
elect  company  who  believe  unto  the  saving  of 
the  soul. 


169 


BONNEY 
PAUL'S    MESSAGE    TO    THE    ATHENIANS 


in 


THOMAS  GEORGE  BONNEY 

Emeritus  professor  of  geology,  Univer- 
sity College,  London;  honorary  canon  of 
Manchester;  fellow  of  St.  John's  Col- 
lege, Cambridge;  born  Rugeley,  July  27, 
1833 ;  educated  at  Uppingham,  St.  John 's 
College,  Cambridge;  tutor  in  St.  John's 
College,  Cambridge,  1868-76;  Whitehall 
preacher,  1876-78;  Hulsean  lecturer 
(Cambridge),  1884;  president  of  the 
Geological  Society,  1884-86;  Boyle  lec- 
turer, 1890-92;  Rede  lecturer  (Cam- 
bridge), 1892;  vice-president  of  the  Royal 
Society,  1899;  author  of  '' Outline 
Sketches  in  the  High  Alps  of  Dau- 
phine,"  '*The  Alpine  Regions,"  ''The 
Story  of  Our  Planet,"  ''Charles  Lyell 
and  Modern  Geology,"  "Ice- Work," 
"Volcanoes,"  four  volumes  of  sermons. 


172 


PAUL'S  MESSAGE  TO  THE 
ATHENIANS 

The  Rev.  T.  G.  Bonney,  Sc.D.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 

"What  therefore  ye  worship  in  ignorance,  this  set  I 
forth  unto  you." — Acts  17  :  23. 

Paul's  landing  at  Neapolis  was  fraught 
with  consequences  even  more  important 
than  that  of  Cassar  or  of  Augustine  on 
our  own  shores.  In  his  short  voyage  from 
Troas  he  had  passed  from  Eastern  to  West- 
ern influences — had  made,  perhaps  uncon- 
sciously, another  great  forward  step  in  the 
process  of  emancipation,  which  began  when 
that  vision  on  the  Damascus  road  changed 
the  persecutor  into  the  missionary  of  Christ 
crucified  and  risen.  Some  fourteen  years  had 
sufficed  to  demonstrate  that  the  gospel  was  a 
substitute  for,  not  an  addition  to,  the  law  of 
Moses;  that  Christianity  was  to  be  something 
different  from  Judaism  completed  by  the 
Messiah.  Antioch  had  become  the  center  of 
missionary  enterprise  rather  than  Jerusalem, 
and  its  preachers  were  proclaiming  that  the 
new  creed  was  world-wide  in  its  compre- 
hensiveness, recognizing  neither  circumcision 
nor  uncircumcision,  neither  Jew  nor  Gentile. 
Yet  for  a  time  its  missionaries,  as  if  shrink- 
ing from  a  task  so  gigantic  as  evangelizing 

173 


MODERN     SERMONS 


the  West,  had  restricted  themselves  to  Eastern 
lands,  until  on  his  second  missionary  journey, 
some  inward  impulse  brought  Paul  to  the 
neighborhood  of  the  Dardanelles,  and  he 
heard  in  the  visions  of  the  night  the  call  of 
the  man  of  Macedonia. 

Hitherto  he  had  labored  where  the  Roman 
rule,  like  our  own  in  India,  was  that  of  an 
alien  power;  now  he  was  to  confront  it  in  its 
home.  Hitherto  he  had  delivered  his  message 
to  men  of  kindred  races  and  habits  of 
thought ;  now  he  was  to  proclaim  to  the  West 
that  the  East  would  lead  its  conqueror  cap- 
tive, and  that  those  who  longed  to  realize 
the  Golden  Age  of  their  poets  must  look  to  the 
Syrian  not  the  Latian  hills.  How  would  this 
message  appeal  to  these  energetic,  practical 
Europeans?  How  would  Christianity  deal 
with  the  new  conditions — the  wealth,  the  art, 
the  power  of  brain  and  muscle,  which  had 
welded  into  one  empire  the  diverse  peoples 
on  the  Mediterranean  shores  ? 

The  answer  to  most  of  these  questions  was 
not  long  in  coming.  Athens  was  still  pre- 
eminent in  art,  architecture,  and  intellectual 
activity :  it  was  then,  to  use  a  modern  phrase, 
the  chief  university  town  in  the  Roman  Em- 
pire, just  as  Corinth,  which  was  next  to  be 
visited,  was  still  the  proverbial  city  of  com- 
mercial millionaires. 

Now  that  the  touchstone  of  the  higher 
criticism,  we  may  be  told,  has  deprived  the 


174 


BONNEY 


New  Testament  Scriptures  of  all  historical 
value,  this  story  is  doubtful  and  the  speech 
is  only  what  some  writer  of  a  later  age  thought 
Paul  ought  to  have  said.  While  I  should 
willingly  concede  that  the  verbal  inspiration 
of  the  Bible  is  a  fetish  of  human  invention, 
no  less  than  papal  infallibility,  I  am  not 
afraid,  tho  fairly  acquainted  with  what  those 
critics  have  written,  to  express  at  least  as 
much  confidence  in  the  general  accuracy  of 
the  historical  parts  of  the  New  Testament  as 
in  that  of  other  ancient  documents,  the  authors 
of  which  were,  above  all  things,  anxious  to 
tell  the  truth.  I  do  not  expect  men,  differing 
from  ourselves  in  race  and  environment,  to 
write  exactly  as  we  should  do,  after  more  than 
eighteen  centuries  of  literary  criticism  and 
progress,  aided  by  the  printing-press.  I 
believe  the  meeting  on  the  Hill  of  Mars  to  be 
a  fact,  and  Paul's  address  to  the  Athenians 
a  condensed  report  of  what  he  actually  said; 
this  being  most  abridged  in  the  latter  part, 
where  the  subjects — Jesus  and  the  resurrec- 
tion— were  familiar  to  those  for  whom  the 
author  was  writing. 

What  Paul  meant  by  these  two  words  we 
can  infer  from  the  four  epistles  already  men- 
tioned. The  first  of  those  to  the  Corinthians 
contains  a  full  statement  of  his  own  belief 
as  to  the  resurrection,  and  expressions  fre- 
quent in  all  of  them,  justify  me,  I  think,  in 
asserting  that,  tho  the  doctrine  of  the  person 

175 


MODERN     SERMONS 


of  Christ  had  not  yet  been  stated  with  its  sub- 
sequent fulness  and  precision,  the  incarnation 
and  the  resurrection  were  the  key-notes  of 
Paul 's  message  to  the  learning  and  the  thought 
of  Europe  in  the  headquarters  of  esthetic 
paganism. 

Never  was  that  message  proclaimed  amid 
surroundings  so  impressive.  I  assume — for 
this  seems  to  me  the  natural  interpretation  of 
the  words — that  Paul  was  speaking  on  the 
Hill  of  Mars,  tho  not  before  a  formal  sitting 
of  the  Areopagos  court.  From  that  limestone 
knoll  we  can  still  look  down  on  an  Athens 
beautiful  in  its  delicate  color  harmony,  but 
then  the  eye  must  have  been  arrested  almost 
everywhere  by  some  pillared  portico  or  sculp- 
tured shrine  in  that  city,  full  of  idols.  Barely 
a  furlong  distant,  the  great  rock  of  the 
Acropolis  rose  up  against  the  sky,  crowned 
with  the  temple  of  the  virgin  goddess  and  its 
not  less  stately  Propyl^ea,  even  now  magnifi- 
cent in  their  ruin,  but  then  dreams  of  beauty 
crystallized  in  gleaming  marble.  Amid  such 
surroundings,  amid  the  triumphs  of  pagan 
art  in  the  city  preeminent  above  all  others 
for  the  visible  expressions  of  its  religious  be- 
liefs, Paul  declared  the  message  which,  tho 
at  first  it  seemed  to  the  Greeks  foolishness, 
was,  nevertheless,  to  subjugate  the  world. 

Its  terms  exhibit  such  a  delicate  tact  that 
we  might  well  plead  them  as  internal  evi- 
dence  of   its   genuineness.     Most   of   Paul's 

176 


BONNEY 


hearers,  we  must  remember,  were  theists^ 
tho  the  gods  of  the  populace  were  many  and 
those  of  Epicurus  supposed  to  sit  aloof  from 
this  struggling  world — so  he  meets  them  at 
the  outset  on  common  ground.  They  had  also 
a  deep  sense  of  religion;  this  he  recognizes, 
while  hinting  that  from  want  of  right  guid- 
ance it  erred  by  excess,  and  skilfully  avails 
himself  of  an  inscription,  which,  whatever 
be  its  precise  meaning,  he  quotes  as  an  ad- 
mission of  imperfect  knowledge.  Thence  he 
passes  on  to  appeal  from  the  dominant 
polytheism  to  the  true  pantheism;  declaring 
that,  if,  as  their  own  poets  admitted,  "we 
are  God's  offspring,"  the  World-father  finds 
in  man  himself  a  nobler  shrine  than  in  graven 
images  of  gold,  silver  and  stone,  the  work  of 
human  hands.  Longing  to  discover  God  in 
nature,  he  seems  to  declare,  feeling  after 
Him  in  the  twilight  of  ignorance,  ye  have 
wandered  far  through  want  of  a  guide;  now 
the  Creator  calls  you  back  to  Himself.  "What 
ye  worship  in  ignorance,  this  set  I  forth  unto 
you. ' ' 

The  Parthenon,  like  many  another  temple 
of  the  gods  on  windy  headland  or  in  fertile 
vale,  is  now  a  ruin,  yet  the  gospel  message  to 
the  students  of  philosophy  and  science  of  the 
twentieth  century  is  not  so  very  different 
from  that  which  Paul  proclaimed  to  their 
predecessors  at  Athens — ' '  Jesus  and  the  resur- 
rection"— Christ    the    incarnate    Lord    and 

1—12  177 


MODERN     SERMONS 


Christ  risen  from  the  dead!  We,  who  have 
been  entrusted  with  it  to-day,  can  still  meet 
those  who  hesitate  to  accept  it  on  the  same 
common  ground;  for  that  crude  atheism,  dis- 
daining everything  incapable  of  being  seen 
under  a  microscope,  or  tested  by  a  gal- 
vanometer, which  once  seemed  growing  in 
favor,  is  now  generally  repudiated  by  thought- 
ful men,  who  will  at  least  admit,  in  the  words 
of  one,  himself  the  reverse  of  credulous,  that 
''The  consciousness  of  a  Power  manifested 
to  us  through  all  phenomena  has  been  growing 
ever  clearer."^  This  power  he  declared  to  be 
inscrutable,  and  many  still  maintain  it  so 
to  be.  At  Athens  probably  a  single  altar, 
and  that  a  humble  one,  bore  the  inscription 
ArNn2T£l  QE£1,  but  now  this  sometimes 
claims  the  monopoly  of  all.  In  a  sense  we 
must  admit  the  words  to  be  true ;  for  the  con- 
ditioned can  not  measure  the  unconditioned, 
the  finite  can  not  comprehend  the  infinite. 
But  even  granting  the  agnosticism  of  some 
scientific  men  in  the  present  age  to  be  a  not 
wholly  unjustifiable  protest  against  the  over- 
weening self-confidence  of  a  certain  class  of 
profest  theologians,  I  venture  to  ask  whether 
we  might  not  with  equal  truth  also  assert  ' '  Be- 
hold, we  know  not  anything"  of  our  environ- 
ment and  our  fellow  creatures.  Matter,  force, 
energy,  life,  mind — what  do  all  these  terms 

1  Herbert   Spencer.     *' First  Principles''    (Part   1, 
Ch.  5,  Sec.  31). 

178 


B  O  N  N  E  Y 


mean?  Travel  back  in  thought  through  the 
peopling  and  the  making  of  worlds  and  tell 
me  what  existed  before  them  and  at  what  call, 
in  the  beginning  and  from  out  of  the  void, 
the  Ilion  of  the  universe  "like  a  mist  rose 
into  towers."  Science  leads  us  from  age  to 
age  through  a  wondrous  land,  but  at  last  her 
path  vanishes  in  a  cloud  and  she  regretfully 
exclaims,  "I  know  no  more."  That  cloud, 
if  we  will  not  accept  any  other  guide,  is  im- 
penetrable, but  from  it  a  Voice  is  calling, 
"follow  me,"  and  it  will  lead  us  to  the  light 
beyond. 

We  are,  however,  sometimes  told  that  in 
substituting  on  our  altar  the  name  of  Christ 
Jesus  for  the  unknown  God,  we  have  deserted 
the  party  of  science,  because  the  incarnation 
and  the  resurrection,  tho  on  different  grounds, 
are  alike  incredible.  That  both  are  im- 
probable, both  contrary  to  general  experience, 
I  readily  admit,  but  think  it  would  be  rash 
to  say  more.  As  regards  the  former,  am  I 
forbidden  as  a  theist,  say  a  pantheist  if 
you  like,  to  concur  with  a  Christian  writer 
whose  orthodoxy  is  beyond  suspicion,  in 
declaring  that  all  things  were  made  by  the 
eternal  Reason,  and  that  they  manifest 
His  indwelling  presence,  which  renders  each 
of  them  ' ''  at  once  a  revelation  and  a  prophecy, 
a  thing  of  beauty  and  finished  workman- 
ship, worthy  to  exist  for  its  own  sake,  and 
yet   a   step   to   higher   purposes,    an   instru- 

179 


MODERN     SERMONS 


ment  for  grander  work?"^  If  this  be  so, 
if  all  nature  when  regarded  in  one  aspect 
be  an  incarnation  of  the  divine,  in  itself  un- 
knowable, can  we  declare  the  incarnation  an 
a  priori  impossibility?  If  matter  and  life,  if 
the  inorganic  and  the  organic  are  manifesta- 
tions of  the  Creator,  may  not  He  also  have 
revealed  Himself,  for  an  end  which  is  unique 
in  history,  in  a  manner  no  less  unique?  Was 
there  no  need  for  such  a  revelation,  no  anxious 
expectancy,  no  restless  craving  for  a  de- 
liverer? Man,  left  to  himself,  was  a  failure. 
That  was  almost  universally  admitted  by  those 
who  looked  thoughtfully  on  the  world; 
Philosophy,  his  highest  effort  to  rise  above 
the  level  of  an  animal,  was  the  religion  of 
few  and  had  no  message  for  the  masses.  We 
know  what  the  Roman  Empire  was  in  the 
days  when  Paul  preached  at  Athens;  what 
would  it  have  been  by  now  had  Christ  never 
come?  I  answer  by  pointing  to  what  it  is, 
tho  He  came. 

The  resurrection,  however,  to  those  trained 
in  the  school  of  science,  presents  more  dif- 
ficulties than  the  incarnation.  The  latter, 
they  would  admit,  does  not  fall  within  its 
scope  and  can  be  neither  proved  nor  dis- 
proved by  its  methods.  The  former  can  be 
indirectly  tested,  and  demands  belief  in  the 
miraculous.      Science    declares    'Hhat    such 

1  J.  K.  Illingworth.  *  *  The  Incarnation  and  Devel- 
opment.''     Lux  Mundi,  page   191.     1890. 

180 


BONNEY 


things  do  not  happen,"  and  that  "the  ashes 
of  Jesus  mingled  with  the  dust  of  Palestine." 
But  can  this  assertion  be  justified?  Is  it  not 
a  little  too  dogmatic?  Before  replying,  it 
will  be  helpful  to  ascertain,  if  possible,  what 
the  apostle  meant  by  the  resurrection.  Some 
of  his  hearers,  particularly  among  the  Epi- 
cureans, would  have  been  ready  to  lament, 
with  Moschus,^  that  death  was  to  man  a 
"boundless,  wakeless  sleep."  Most  of  them, 
however,  believed  in  a  future  life.  Some 
looked  for  absorption  into  the  divine  essence, 
but  the  majority  for  a  continuity  of  personal 
consciousness,  and  even  of  form,  tho  that  was 
only  of  a  fantom  kind.  Such  a  belief  failed 
to  satisfy:  the  halcyon  calm  and  purple  light 
of  the  Elysian  fields,  with  their  flowers  of 
asphodel  and  groves  of  scented  laurel,  seemed 
a  poor  substitute  for  the  substantial,  if  more 
checkered,  joys  of  this  present  life.  To  all 
these  Paul  proclaimed  the  resurrection,  not 
as  a  philosophic  speculation,  but  as  a  fact 
in  human  history.  From  his  own  writings, 
and  those  of  his  companions  or  immediate 
successors,  we  can  see  plainly  what  his  mes- 
sage meant  and  how  great  was  its  advance  on 
the  ideas  which  then  found  a  place  in  the  re- 
ligions of  Europe.  Starting  from  the  common 
ground  of  a  belief  in  the  self  which  survived 
death,  he  told  them  that  this  would  at  some 
particular  epoch  again  assume,  in  what  man- 
1 ''Elegy  on  Bion. "  Idyl  3,  106. 
181 


MODERN     SERMONS 


ner  we  do  not  know,  a  state  analogous  to  its 
former  one.  Terms,  which,  if  not  found  in 
Paul's  writings,  are  quite  consistent  with 
them,  such  as  "the  new  heaven,"  "the  new 
earth, "  "  the  new  Jerusalem, ' '  however  figura- 
tive they  may  be,  must  imply  some  kind  of 
relationship  between  the  living  personality 
and  a  material  environment.  Between  the 
body  which  is  now  in  existence,  and  that  which 
shall  be  hereafter,  is  a  connection,  the  apostle 
tells  us,  like  that  of  the  seed  and  the  future 
plant — a  statement  which  plainly  implies  that 
they  are  linked  together  by  more  than  identity 
of  consciousness.  Only  three  or  four  years 
later  he  spoke  in  these  terms  of  the  resurrec- 
tion of  the  dead:  "It  is  sown  in  corruption; 
it  is  raised  in  incorruption :  it  is  sown  in  dis- 
honor; it  is  raised  in  glory:  it  is  sown  in 
weakness;  it  is  raised  in  power:  it  is  sown 
a  natural  body ;  it  is  raised  a  spiritual  body. ' ' 
To  proclaim  this  he  abandoned  all  that  to 
most  men  makes  life  valuable,  and  his  faith 
rested  on  his  personal  certainty  that  "now  is 
Christ  risen  from  the  dead  and  become  the 
first  fruits  of  them  that  slept."  What  then 
was  this  rising  from  the  dead?  Enough  re- 
mains from  what  was  written  by  Paul  him- 
self, his  companions,  or  his  immediate  suc- 
cessors, to  enable  us  to  answer  the  question 
in  general  terms.  Christ  died  on  the  cross, 
and  His  body  was  at  once  buried  outside  the 
walls  of  Jerusalem  in  a  rock-cut  tomb.     In 


182 


BONNEY 


the  early  morning,  about  six-and-thirty  hours 
afterward,  the  heavy  stone  which  closed  the 
entrance  was  rolled  back  without  the  help  of 
man,  and  the  crucified  One,  leaving  there 
His  cerements,  came  forth  and  appeared, 
seemingly  in  familiar  garb,  to  one  or  other 
of  His  disciples.  But  the  Christ  whom  they 
saw  on  the  Emmaus  road,  in  the  closed  cham- 
ber at  Jerusalem,  on  the  shore  of  the  Galilean 
Lake,  was  not  in  all  respects  the  same  with 
the  Christ  who  had  taught  in  the  Temple 
courts  and  had  been  nailed  to  the  cross.  The 
body,  in  which  He  suffered  these  things,  had 
vanished;  the  tomb  was  empty,  for  otherwise 
the  strongest  proof  that  the  resurrection  was 
not  an  illusion  but  a  fact  would  have  been 
wanting.  The  body  in  which  Christ  now 
came,  tho  perceptible  to  the  senses,  appeared 
and  disappeared  at  will,  in  no  way  impeded 
by  obstacles  which  are  ordinarily  insuperable. 
It  was  indeed  the  Lord,  but  the  disciples,  as 
sometimes  happens  when  friends  meet  after  a 
long  separation,  did  not  always  "recognize 
Him  immediately.  In  this  recognition  there 
must  have  been  a  subjective  element,  tho  they 
were  permitted  tests  sufficient  to  prove  the 
objective  reality  of  His  body.  The  change 
which  awaits  His  servants  had  become  in 
Christ  more  or  less  complete  before  He  left 
the  tomb  on  that  first  Easter  morning. 

Such  are  the  outlines  of  the  story.     We 
grant  that  we  can  not  appeal  to  either  experi- 

183 


MODERN    SERMONS 


mental  tests  or  investigations  in  the  natural 
order  for  confirmatory  evidence.  We  freely 
admit  the  event  to  be  without  a  parallel,  but 
maintain  the  occasion  and  person  to  be  alike 
unique,  and  in  so  doing  venture  to  ask  whether 
any  recent  advances  of  science,  great  as  they 
have  been,  have  increased  our  difficulties  in 
believing  that  story  to  be  true  ? 

It  is  now  forty-tv\^o  years  since  the  British 
Association  met  in  this  university  town,  and 
during  that  interval,  new — and  I  might  al- 
most say  revolutionary — views  about  the 
nature  and  constitution  of  matter  have  be- 
come generally  accepted.  The  atoms,  once 
supposed  to  be  its  ultimate  condition,  are  now 
shown  to  be  themselves  capable  of  dissocia- 
tion; to  be  compounds,  generally  stable  under 
their  ordinary  environment,  but  built  up  of 
units,  the  minuteness  of  which  can  be  more 
readily  exprest  in  words  than  apprehended 
by  thought;  these  being  common  constituents 
of  all  bodies,  however  diverse.  Such  diversity 
depends  indirectly  on  environment  and  di- 
rectly on  the  mutual  relation  of  the  constitu- 
ent corpuscles,  that  relation  being  a  result 
of  their  movements.  Thus  the  atom  itself, 
instead  of  being  a  tiny  speck  of  inert  material, 
dependent  on  external  stimulus,  has  been  com- 
pared, by  good  authorities,  to  a  miniature 
solar  system,  the  electrified  corpuscles  rota- 
ting round  each  other  and  round  larger  cor- 
puscles, oppositely  electrified,  and  related  one 

184 


BONNEY 


to  another,  in  their  proportions,  masses,  and 
mutual  distances,  in  ways  not  unlike  those 
which  obtain  in  existing  planetary  and  stellar 
systems.  But  whether  this  or  some  other  mode 
of  presenting  an  idea  which  almost  trans- 
cends the  limit  of  science,  be  the  more  ac- 
curate, it  is  now  generally  admitted  that 
matter  may  be  ultimately  reduced,  not  to 
anything  that  corresponds  with  our  ordinary 
notion  of  that  term,  but  to  electricity  in  its 
two  states,  on  some  association  of  which  its 
very  existence  may  be  dependent. 

Science,  then,  has  led  us  back  step  by  step, 
and  that  by  more  than  one  path,  to  "the 
border-land  where  matter  and  force  seem  to 
merge  into  one  another — the  shadowy  realm 
between  the  known  and  the  unknown."^ 
Thus  the  atom  itself,  instead  of  being  inert, 
is  a  store  of  potential  energy  which,  when 
not  occupied  in  maintaining  a  condition 
recognizable  by  our  senses  as  matter,  is  free 
to  operate  in  other  w^ays,  as  is  shown  by  the 
phenomena  of  radio-activity.  We  also  know 
that  the  form  of  a  substance  depends  on  its 
environment,  according  to  which  it  may  be 
gas,  liquid,  or  solid,  but  even  in  the  last  state 
it  is  often  permeable  by  the  corpuscles,  to  use 
a  very  rough  simile,  like  a  fine  wire  sieve  by 
air.  It  has  also  been  discovered  that  the  at- 
mosphere  is   diaphanous   to   electricity  as   it 

1  Sir  W.  Crookes.  *' Modern  Views  on  Matter" 
(1903). 

185 


MODERN     SERMONS 


is  to  light,  but  that  the  passage  of  the  former 
is  not  arrested  by  such  a  material  obstacle 
as  the  curvature  of  the  earth;  in  short 
recent  advances  in  physical  science  have 
shown  that  not  only  "the  flower  in  the  cran- 
nied wall,"  but  the  stones  of  the  wall  itself 
shroud  mysteries  of  which  no  man  can  hope 
to  raise  the  veil.  Everywhere,  from  the 
merest  speck  of  dust  on  this  earth  to  the  re- 
motest gleams  in  the  star-studded  sky,  that 
power,  which  we  call  energy,  is  manifesting 
itself  in  almost  countless  modes,  and  if  we 
ask  w^hat  that  really  is,  we  must,  I  think,  be 
content  to  answer  either  that  we  do  not  know 
or  that  it  is  an  epiphany  of  God. 

Advances  have  also  been  made,  tho  with 
more  uncertain  steps,  in  ascertaining  rela- 
tions between  the  will  and  the  organism,  at 
any  rate  in  man.  I  am  well  aware  that  this 
field  of  inquiry  is  full  of  pitfalls,  that  it  is 
infested  by  the  charlatan,  but  do  not  think 
it  is  therefore  closed  to  scientific  investigation, 
or  is- one  which  can  produce  no  better  harvest 
than  Dead  Sea  fruits.  Such  investigation 
has  already  been  carried  far  enough  to  show 
that  the  will  is  something  more  than  a  func- 
tion of  the  organism,  and  can  act  inde- 
pendently upon  it.  The  will  also  of  one  per- 
son, as  we  infer  from  well-established  phe- 
nomena of  hypnotism,  is  capable  of  exerting 
an.  influence  over  the  will,  and,  through  it, 
the  body  of  another,  and  there  is  some  evi- 

186 


BONNEY 


dence  to  show  action  of  this  nature  to  be 
possible  when  the  two  persons  are  a  consider- 
able distance  apart.  But  these  phenomena — 
and  I  think  this  point  important — are  com- 
paratively exceptional ;  they  are  not  exhibited 
by  all  persons,  but  only  when  the  instruments, 
to  borrow  a  phrase  from  practical  electricity, 
are  properly  attuned.  At  any  rate,  they 
intimate  the  existence  of  forces,  but  lately 
either  unsuspected  or  discredited,  which  can, 
like  gravitation  or  magnetism,  act  across 
space ;  forces  which  suggest  that  the  antithesis 
between  the  natural  and  the  miraculous  may 
be  less  real  than  is  commonly  supposed. 

If  then  the  existence  of  a  spiritual  body 
was  admitted  by  many  philosophers,  and  gen- 
erally believed  by  the  populace,  before  Christ 
taught  in  Palestine,  what  additional  burden 
did  the  doctrine  of  the  resurrection,  as 
preached  by  Paul,  impose  upon  minds  mis- 
trustful of  any  but  inductive  reasoning  ?  This 
doctrine  asserts  that  in  the  future  at  a  par- 
ticular epoch,  which  is  thus  far  analogous  to 
our  birth  in  this  world,  the  relation  between 
the  conscious  self — the  soul  of  theologians — 
and  some  form  or  forms  of  material — a  body 
— will  become  more  comprehensive  and  com- 
plete. That  can  not  be  incredible  on  a  priori 
gi^ounds,  for  it  is  no  more  than  an  extension 
— a  considerable  one,  I  grant — of  what  has 
been  generally  admitted:  the  survival  of 
something    which,    tho    intangible,    may    be 

187 


MODERN    SERMONS 


visible.  It  can  not  be  demonstrated  by  direct 
experiment,  but  if  that  is  to  be  our  only 
guide,  we  shall  be  compelled,  I  think,  to  pro- 
nounce any  survival  of  the  conscious  indi- 
vidual to  be  impossible,  or  at  least  in  the 
highest  degree  improbable,  unless  we  admit 
it  of  every  form  of  life.  The  doctrine  also 
implies  that  the  condition  of  the  body  in  this 
new  state  must  be  far  more  dependent  on  the 
will  of  the  personal  self  than  is  now  possible. 
Here,  tho  in  a  state  of  constant  flux,  of  in- 
cessant molecular,  if  not  atomic,  association 
and  dissociation,  it  yet  maintains,  through 
consciousness  of  self,  a  personal  identity,  con- 
ferring, so  to  say,  a  temporary  franchise  on 
what  once  was  alien.  May  not  the  individual 
will,  under  the  conditions  of  another  order, 
be  capable  of  causing  the  constituents  of  its 
body  to  pass  into  a  state  analogous  to  the 
corpuscular  in  the  present  order,  acting  on 
them,  across  space,  if  necessary,  to  bring  them 
again  into  union;  thus  making  the  invisible 
visible,  and  the  immaterial  material?  Such 
a  body  might  even  be  able  to  retain  its  con- 
stituent identity  (if  this  be  needed).  Affinities 
now  exist,  which  determine,  in  accordance  with 
ascertained  laws,  the  formation  of  certain 
molecules  from  certain  atoms.  But  as  these 
atoms  are  not  innumerable,  similar  affinities 
must  exist  among  the  ^corpuscles;  so  that  one 
association  produces  gold,  another  quicksilver, 
a  third  oxygen,  and  the  identities  of  these 

188 


BONNEY 


associations  a  not  destroyed  by  the  passage 
from  solid,  through  fluid,  to  vapor,  and  the 
reverse.  So  it  may  be,  that  when  matter  is 
far  more  subject  than  now  to  will,  this  will 
may  exercise  a  magnetic  force  on  those  con- 
stituents only,  with  which  it  had  already 
entered  into  a  personal  relationship,  and  they 
may  possess  affinities  which  can  bring  them, 
and  no  others,  into  union.  In  such  a  case 
material  identity,  when  a  transitory  is  re- 
placed by  a  permanent  condition,  would  be 
completely  maintained.  This,  I  grant,  is  a 
speculation,  and  incapable  of  proof,  but  I 
maintain  that  it  has  been  made  more  rather 
than  less  probable  by  recent  advances  in 
science.  I  will  even  venture  to  ask,  whether, 
on  the  supposition  that  in  our  present  phase 
of  existence  matter  and  energy  may  be  ulti- 
mately identical,  it  would  be  surprizing  if 
objective  and  subjective  were  similarly  merged 
in  that  which  is  to  come? 

Jesus  and  the  resurrection  were  Paul's 
message  to  the  world  and  especially  to  the 
thoughtful  men  of  his  days,  and  it  has  not  lost 
its  force,  familiar  as  it  has  since  become,  in 
our  own.  These  are  still  the  two  great  prob- 
lems: Who  shall  deliver  me  from  the  body 
of  this  death;  and  What,  if  anything,  is 
reached  through  the  portals  of  the  grave? 
Man  had  realized  his  want  of  something  more 
definite  than  the  power  and  love  of  God;  the 
need  of  one  who  can  be  touched  with  the  feel- 

189 


MODERN    SERMONS 


ing  of  our  infirmities  and  is  like  unto  ourselves, 
sin  only  excepted.  That  he  found  when  the 
divine  and  the  human  met  in  one  person  and 
he  could  henceforth  exclaim  with  the  apostle 
**I  thank  God,  through  Jesus  Christ  our 
Lord.'*  The  second  question  man  had  asked 
for  countless  years  in  vain:  Science  and 
philosophy  had  alike  failed  to  solve  the 
mystery.  But  it  was  answered  on  the  first 
Easter  morning.  ' '  Christ  has  risen ' ' — on  that 
fact  the  Church  has  been  founded,  in  that  be- 
lief countless  thousands  have  fallen  asleep  in 
peace.  For  a  time,  science,  in  its  rapidly 
increased  perception  of  a  reign  of  law  seemed 
to  produce  difficulties;  now  it  has  made  us 
familiar  with  phenomena  which,  a  century 
ago,  would  have  been  deemed  incredible,  and 
it  hints  at  possibilities  which  would  make  that 
reign  ftir  more  inclusive  than  heretofore. 

Tho  theology  and  science  may  move  in 
parallel  planes  man  forms  a  conducting 
medium  between  them.  They  may  labor  on 
continents,  between  which,  as  it  often  seems 
to  us,  a  wide  sea  flows,  but  we  shall  find  that 
at  last  this  narrows  to  a  Dardanelles.  Neither 
can  dispense  with  the  aid  of  the  other;  for 
if  there  are  desires  and  cravings  of  humg-n 
nature  which  science  is  powerless  to  satisfy, 
because  they  pertain  to  an  order  which  can 
not  be  either  seen  by  the  eye  or  felt  with  the 
hand  of  living  man,  religion  has  its  spiritual 
foes  against  which  science  is  its  best  protector. 

190 


BONNEY 


Paul  himself  had  to  do  battle  for  Christian 
freedom  against  Jewish  formalism  and  pagan 
superstition,  and  the  contest  is  not  yet  ended. 
Truth,  to  reverse  the  well-kno^Ti  parable,  is 
like  wheat  sown  among  tares ;  it  has  had  from 
the  outset  to  struggle  against  not  only  tne 
reluctancy  of  the  human  heart,  but  also  the 
perversions  of  the  human  mind.  Here,  then, 
is  the  field  where  science  can  strengthen  the 
hands  of  religion,  can  help  it  in  destroying 
parasitic  growths  w^hich  have  often  threatened 
to  check  its  development,  even  to  choke  it  out 
of  existence.  Their  relations  in  the  past  have 
too  often  been  those  of  mutual  distrust,  even 
of  active  hostility;  let  man  no  longer  seek 
to  put  asunder  what  God  hath  joined  together. 
Paul  came  to  Athens  to  satisfy  the  anxious 
questionings  of  mankind  by  revealing  the 
God  whom  they  had  failed  to  find.  It  was  a 
crisis  in  the  world's  history,  little  as  his 
listeners  on  the  Hill  of  Mars  recognized  its 
gravity.  And  it  was  not,  neither  will  it  be, 
the  last  in  Christian  history.  The  work  of 
reformation  is  not  yet  complete.  Many  have 
striven  to  eradicate  the  relics  of  Judaism 
and  the  lingering  taint  of  paganism,  but  more 
must  be  done  before  the  Church  catholic  re- 
turns to  the  purer  and  stronger  faith  of  its 
earlier  days,  without,  however,  repudiating 
the  developments  received  from  Christian 
philosophy.  To  that  return  superstition  is 
hostile,  but  of  superstition  science  is  the  im- 

191 


MODERN    SERMONS 


placable  foe,  for  it  refuses  to  be  deterred  by- 
phrases  or  by  fantoms  of  human  creating. 
Years  must  pass  before  these  finally  lose  all 
power  of  harm,  and  man  becomes  free  as  the 
servant  of  Christ.  Such  a  deliverance  may, 
in  our  darker  hours,  seem  no  better  than  a 
hopeless  dream,  yet  might  not  Paul  have 
despaired  when  he  testified  against  idols  at 
Athens?  Let,  then,  those  Christians  who 
long  for  that  dream  to  be  realized,  who  are 
not  afraid  of  a  wider  study  of  either  this 
world  or  the  mysteries  of  the  universe,  because 
in  all  these  they  see  ''the  Vision  of  Him  who 
reigns, ' ' — let  them  now  seek  an  alliance  which 
they  have  too  long  repudiated,  and  call  in 
their  turn,  as  Vv^ell  they  may,  to  fellow  workers 
in  science,  "Come  over  and  help  us." 


Its 


BOSWORTH 
THE  MEANING  OF  LIFE 


1—13  193 


EDWARD  INCREASE  BOSWORTH 

Professor  of  New  Testament  language 
and  literature,  Oberlin  Theological  Semi- 
nary, Ohio,  since  1892;  dean  since  1903; 
born  Dundee,  111.,  January  10,  1861; 
graduated  from  Elgin  Academy,  111., 
1877;  student  Oberlin  College,  1879-81; 
graduated  from  Yale,  1883 ;  Oberlin  Theo- 
logical Seminary,  1886;  student  at  the 
University  of  Leipsic,  1890,1;  Congi'e- 
gational  clergyman;  pastor,  Mt.  Ver- 
non, Ohio,  1886,7;  professor  of  English 
Bible,  1887-90;  author  of  '^  Studies  in 
the  Acts  and  Epistles,'^  ''Studies  in  the 
Teaching  of  Jesus  and  His  Apostles," 
''Studies  in  the  Life  of  Jesus  Christ," 
etc. 


194 


THE  MEANING  OF  LIFE 
Edward  Increase  Bosworth,  D.O. 

"If  a  son,  then  an  heir." — Gal.  4  :  7. 

THERE  is  one  story  that  never  fails  to  in- 
terest men.  It  is  the  story  of  the  real 
experiences  of  a  human  life.  If  an  old 
man  should  rise  in  any  audience  and  describe 
with  absolute  frankness  the  most  vitally  im- 
portant experiences  of  his  life,  he  would  hold 
the  attention  of  his  audience  to  the  end.  He 
would  describe  his  earliest  recollections  of 
home,  parents,  brothers  and  sisters.  He  would 
tell  of  his  first  boy  friend.  He  would  describe 
the  way  in  which  he  earned  his  first  dollar. 
He  would  tell  how  he  first  met,  learned  to 
love  and  asked  in  marriage  her  who  after- 
ward became  his  wife.  He  would  speak  of 
the  holy  sensation  of  fatherhood  that  welled 
up  in  his  heart  as  he  held  his  first-born  in 
his  arms.  He  would  speak  of  the  dumb  out- 
cry of  his  heart  as  he  held  the  same  child 
in  his  arms  and  watched  its  breathing  slowly 
cease.  He  would  tell  the  story  of  the  great 
loves  and  hates  of  his  life.  He  would  speak 
of  the  timid  wonder  or  eager  anticipation 
with  which  now,  in  his  old  age,  he  looks  out 
upon  a  near  eternity. 

God  is  the  supreme  inventive  genius  of  the 

195 


MODERN    SERMONS 


universe.  Men  are  possest  of  wonderful  in- 
ventive genius  that  has  exprest  itself  in  all 
the  counties::  devices  of  modern  civilization. 
We  may  say  of  them  in  homely  phrase  that 
in  this  particular  they  simply  "take  after" 
their  Father,  who  is  Himself  the  supreme  in- 
ventive genius.  So  far  as  we  know,  the 
supreme  product  of  His  infinite  inventive 
genius  is  the  situation  which  we  call  plain, 
commonplace  daily  life.  Nothing  else  is  more 
wonderful  than  the  daily  relation  of  a  man 
to  his  personal  and  physical  environment,  that 
we  call  plain  daily  life. 

What  is  the  meaning  of  this  experience, 
the  story  of  which  never  fails  to  interest 
men?  What  is  the  purpose  of  this  situation 
devised  by  the  infinite  ingenuity  of  God? 
What  is  life  for  ?  The  answer  is  to  be  sought 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  text — the  Father- 
hood of  God:  ''If  a  son,  then  an  heir."  God 
appears  as  a  Father  of  sons  whom  He  wishes 
to  be  His  heirs.  Human  life  is  a  situation 
devised  by  the  infinite  ingenuity  of  God,  in 
which  to  train  sons  for  an  inheritance  of 
power  by  teaching  them  to  use  power  in  a 
friendly  spirit. 

There  are  certain  things  implied  in  this 
statement  of  the  purpose  of  life.  It  is  im- 
plied that  God  is  a  Father  who  has  vast 
power  to  bequeath.  The  evidences  of  it  are 
on  every  side.  It  is  said  that  if  one  of  the 
fiery  whirlstorms   on   the   sun  should   occur 

198 


BOSWORTH 


on  the  surface  of  the  earth,  it  would  be  in 
the  Gulf  of  Mexico  thirty  seconds  after  it 
had  left  the  St.  Lawrence,  and  everything 
in  its  track  would  be  a  hot  vapor.  The  words 
that  God  left  ringing  in  the  ears  of  men, 
when  He  launched  the  race  upon  its  career, 
were  calculated  to  arouse  expectation  of 
power:  "Subdue  the  earth,"  "Have  domin- 
ion." The  words  which  Jesus  spoke  to  His 
fellow  men  at  the  close  of  His  life  of  mar- 
velous manifestation  of  power  were  also  cal- 
culated to  make  them  expect  to  exercise  power. 
"He  that  believeth  on  me,  the  works  that 
I  do  shall  he  do  also,  and  greater  works  than 
these  shall  he  do." 

It  is  implied  that  God  is  an  ambitious 
Father,  ambitious  to  see  His  sons  make  the 
most  of  themselves.  We  sometimes  think  of 
God  as  a  Sovereign  whose  plans  are  good  for 
the  world  as  a  whole,  but  involve  so  much  of 
hardship  and  limitation  for  the  individual 
that  a  man  may  well  wish  to  have  the  least 
possible  personal  connection  with  them.  Such 
is  not  Paul's  thought.  To  him  God  is  indeed 
a  Sovereign,  but  a  sovereign  Father,  ambi- 
tious to  see  His  sons  become  His  heirs. 

It  is  implied  also  that  God  is  a  conscientious 
Father,  too  conscientious  to  allow  His  sons 
to  become  His  heirs  unless  they  are  fit  to 
possess  that  which  He  would  bequeath.  Heir- 
ship was  once  synonymous  with  license.  The 
heir  to  the  throne  was  allowed  certain  ex- 

197 


MODERN    SERMONS 


emptions  from  ordinary  obligations.  He 
might  gratify  his  appetites  with  a  disregard 
of  consequences  unpardonable  in  the  case  of 
other  men.  But  with  advancing  ideas  of  the 
responsibilities  inseparable  from  the  posses- 
sion of  power  this  idea  is  largely  passing 
away.  He  who  would  inherit  must  be  trained 
into  fitness  for  the  inheritance.  It  is  said 
that  one  of  the  present  European  sovereigns 
gave  little  promise  as  a  child  of  ever  being 
fit  for  the  inheritance  that  would  naturally 
come  to  him.  His  father,  however,  was  a 
conscientious  man,  and  systematically  set 
about  the  process  of  making  his  son  fit  for 
heirship.  He  provided  for  his  physical  de- 
velopment, gave  him  military  training,  ed- 
ucated him  in  the  branches  of  learning  most 
essential  to  statesmanship,  and  in  every  way 
so  devoted  himself  to  the  preparation  of  his 
son  for  the  responsibilities  of  heirship  that, 
finally,  when  the  prince  inherited  the  king- 
dom, few^  rulers  were  better  fitted  than  he 
for  the  responsibilities  of  power. 

That  human  life  is  a  situation  devised  by 
the  infinite  ingenuity  of  God,  in  which  to 
teach  His  sons  to  use  power  in  a  friendly 
spirit  is  evident  from  several  considerations: 

The  nature  of  life  as  revealed  in  its  two 
most  characteristic  features  shows  that  it  is 
intended  to  serve  this  purpose.  It  may  seem 
difficult  to  determine  what  features  of  life 
ought  to  be  selected  as  chara3teristic.     We 

198 


BOSWORTH 


naturally  look  for  something  yery  generally 
present  in  life  and  of  fundamental  signifi- 
cance. Perhaps,  nothing  more  exactly  meets 
this  requirement  than  the  phenomenon  of 
human  suffering,  and  the  family. 

Suffering  is  a  universal  and  vitally  sig- 
nificant feature  of  human  life.  Who  escapes 
it?  It  begins  with  the  physical  pains  of  in- 
fancy. How  many  thousands  lie  to-day  suf- 
fering in  hospitals !  How  many  millions  suf- 
fer pain  outside  the  merciful  ministrations  of 
the  hospital !  But  who  is  there  who  lives  long 
without  knowing  something  of  the  suffering 
that  is  keener  than  bodily  pain,  the  suffering 
of  the  soul,  in  all  the  violent  passion  or  steady, 
relentless  oppression  of  sorrow  in  its  manifold 
forms?  We  may  be  unable  to  form  a  com- 
plete philosophy  of  suffering,  but  this  much 
is  at  once  evident :  It  makes  a  powerful  appeal 
for  the  friendly  use  of  power.  Especially  is 
this  seen  to  be  the  case  in  our  day  when  easy 
combination  and  swift  transmission  of  power 
make  it  possible  for  a  large  number  of  men, 
each  of  whom  has  a  little  power,  quickly  to 
apply  that  power  in  a  friendly  way  to  any 
remote  point  of  need.  It  is  possible  for  thou- 
sands of  persons,  each  with  a  small  am.ount 
of  personal  power  represented  in  his  single 
dollar,  to  accumulate  a  sum  of  mone^/  within 
a  few  hours  in  the  hands  of  a  reliable  central 
agency  that  will  cable  it  to  the  other  side 
of  the  world  and  release  it  there   in  some 

199 


MODERN    SERMONS 


form  of  personal  activity  that  shall  be  the 
friendly  relief  of  suffering. 

By  the  side  of  the  phenomenon  of  suffering 
stands  the  family  as  a  great  characteristic 
feature  of  human  life.  A  large  part  of  the 
significance  of  the  family  consists  in  the  train- 
ing it  affords  its  members  in  the  friendly  use 
of  power.  A  little  child  is  born  into  the 
world,  ''an  appetite  and  a  cry."  Very  soon 
an  appeal  is  made  to  the  little  soul  for  love. 
It  is  the  appeal  of  the  mother's  eyes.  The 
appeal  of  the  father  is  soon  made  and  felt 
to  be  different  from  that  of  the  mother.  In 
time  a  third  appeal  is  made  by  the  baby 
brother,  and  a  fourth,  different  from  the 
other  three,  by  the  baby  sister.  The  child 
becomes  a  man  and  loves  a  woman.  The 
appeal  of  the  wife  for  love;  that  is,  for  the 
friendly  use  of  power,  differs  from  any  that 
have  preceded  it.  When  a  baby  boy  lies  in 
the  father's  arms  a  new  appeal  is  made,  and 
the  appeal  of  the  baby  girl  touches  a  new 
chord  in  the  father's  heart.  The  seven-fold 
appeal  of  father,  mother,  brother,  sister,  wife, 
son,  daughter,  which  is  experienced  in  the 
fully  developed  family  relationship,  consti- 
tutes an  appeal  for  the  friendly  use  of  power 
that  can  be  matched  by  no  creation  of  the 
imagination.  When  one  looks,  therefore,  into 
the  nature  of  human  life  as  exprest  in  its 
two  characteristic  features,  human  suffering 
and  the  family,  he  is  constrained  to  regard 

200 


BOS WORTH 


it  as  a  situation  devised  by  the  infinite  in- 
genuity of  God  in  which  to  teach  His  children 
to  use  power  in  a  friendly  spirit,  and  pre- 
sumably with  reference  to  giving  them  larger 
bequests  of  power. 

The  truth  of  this  proposition  also  becomes 
evident  when  we  recognize  that  this  conception 
underlay  Jesus'  theory  of  life.  When  the 
rich  young  senator  came  to  Him  as  to  an  ex- 
pert professional  prophet,  asking  Him  to  spe- 
cify something  the  doing  of  which  would  guar- 
antee him  the  advantages  of  "eternal  life," 
Jesus  simply  directed  him  to  begin  at  once 
to  use  the  power  he  already  possest  in  a 
friendly  spirit.  He  pointed  out  to  him  the 
suffering  on  every  side  and  told  him  to  begin 
to  use  his  possessions  in  relieving  it. 

Jesus'  general  teaching  regarding  the 
proper  use  of  money  is  based  on  this  theory 
of  life.  ''Make  to  yourselves  friends,"  he 
said,  ''by  means  of  the  mammon  of  unright- 
eousness, so  that  when  it  shall  fail  they  may 
receive  you  into  eternal  tabernacles"  (Luke, 
16  :9).  That  is,  a  man's  money  power  is 
to  be  used  in  a  friendly  spirit  that  will  lay 
the  foundations  for  eternal  friendships.  When 
two  men  meet  for  the  first  time  in  the  age 
to  come,  it  will  be  discovered  that  one  is  there 
because  of  the  friendly  spirit  in  which  the 
other  once  used  his  money  to  meet  the  great 
needs  of  those  whom  he  did  not  then  know 
personally,  and  who  perhaps  lived  in  other 

201 


MODERN    SERMONS 


lands.  Jesus  regarded  money  as  a  compara- 
tively low  form  of  power  put  into  a  man's 
hands  for  a  little  time  in  order  that  he  might 
learn  to  use  it  in  a  friendly  way  and  so 
prepare  himself  to  be  trusted  with  higher 
forms  of  power.  "If,  therefore,  ye  have  not 
been  faithful  in  the  use  of  unrighteous  mam- 
mon, who  will  commit  to  your  trust  the  true 
riches?"  How  can  the  Church  expect  God 
to  trust  it  with  any  such  large  degree  of 
prayer  power  as  is  described  in  the  great 
promises  of  achievement  through  prayer,  until 
it  has  first  learned  to  use  the  lower  money 
power  in  a  friendly  spirit?  Jesus  regarded 
money  as  something  that  really  belongs  to 
another.  It  often  comes  to  us  by  inheritance 
from  another,  and  is  certain  at  death  to  pass 
from  us  to  another.  It  remains  in  our  hands 
a  little  while  in  order  that  by  using  it  in  a 
friendly  way  we  may  be  prepared  to  inherit 
some  higher  form  of  power  that  we  can  carry 
out  into  the  eternal  future  as  our  permanent 
possession.  ''And  if  ye  have  not  been  faith- 
ful in  that  which  is  another's,  who  will  give 
you  that  which  is  your  own?" 

Jesus  not  only  held  this  view  of  life  as  a 
theory,  but  He  actually  used  human  life  as 
a  situation  in  which  to  prepare  men  for  an 
inheritance  of  power  by  teaching  them  to  use 
power  in  a  friendly  way.  The  salvation  which 
He  brings  to  men  is  one  which  saves  them 
to  this  kind  of  life.    There  is  no  more  striking 


202 


BOSWORTH 


evidence  of  the  seriousness  of  sin  than  the 
fact  that  the  powerful  appeal  made  by  life 
itself  is  not  sufficient  to  induce  men  to  use 
power  in  a  friendly  way.  There  is  still  need 
that  a  great  Savior  should  enter  the  situation 
and  bring  the  persuasive  power  of  His  own 
friendly  personality  to  bear  upon  men.  But 
human  life,  as  we  have  conceived  it,  is  a 
situation  big  enough  for.  and  suitable  to,  the 
operations  of  a  great  Savior.  It  affords  Him 
the  opportunity  He  needs  to  link  men's  lives 
in  with  His  own  ever-present  life,  and  to  train 
them  through  personal  association  with  Him- 
self in  the  friendly  use  of  power.  He  not 
only  pointed  out  the  suffering  poor  to  the 
rich  young  man  who  came  inquiring  about 
eternal  life,  and  directed  him  to  use  his  money 
in  their  relief,  but  He  said  also,  "Come,  fol- 
low me."  He  proposed  to  attach  the  man 
permanently  to  Himself  and  to  the  friendly 
enterprise  into  which  He  was  leading  His  dis- 
ciples. The  disciples  of  Jesus  were  a  company 
of  men  being  personally  trained  by  Him  in 
the  friendly  use  of  power.  They  were  to  be 
specialists  in  friendship:  "By  this  shall  all 
men  know  that  ye  are  my  disciples,  if  ye 
have  love  one  to  another."  The  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  not  a  club  which  men  and 
women  join  for  what  they  can  get  out  of  it, 
but  it  is  a  company  of  men  and  women  banded 
together  to  be  trained  by  the  living  Lord 
in  the  friendly  use  of  power.    They  keep  the 

203 


MODERN     SERMONS 


search-light  of  their  investigation  playing  all 
round  the  world's  horizon,  and  when  it  falls 
upon  some  point  of  special  need,  to  that  point 
some  members  of  this  Christly  company 
hasten  with  power  for  its  relief. 

It  is  further  evident  that  human  life  is  a 
situation  devised  by  the  infinite  ingenuity  of 
God  in  which  to  prepare  sons  for  an  inher- 
itance of  power  by  teaching  them  to  use  power 
in  a  friendly  spirit,  because  human  life  has 
actually  been  serving  this  purpose.  When  we 
look  back  over  the  long  history  of  human  life 
in  the  world,  it  is  evident  that  God  has  fairly 
been  crowding  more  power  into  ihe  hands  of 
men,  as  fast  as  they  have  learned  to  use  what 
they  already  had  with  even  an  imperfect  de- 
gree of  friendliness.  This  is  seen,  for  in- 
stance, in  the  case  of  explosives.  Men  in  the 
brutal  first  century  of  our  era  could  not  be 
trusted  to  use  the  power  of  modern  explo- 
sives. We  see  evidences  enough  of  brutality 
still,  but  if  some  new  explosive  should  be 
discovered  that  would  destroy  the  lives  of 
a  million  men  in  an  instant,  there  is  now  a 
friendly  sentiment  in  the  hearts  of  men  that 
would  instantly  demand  the  elimination  of 
this  explosive  from  modern  warfare. 

In  the  industrial  development  of  our  day, 
increasing  power  is  being  put  into  the  hands 
of  employers  and  employed,  as  men  are  able  to 
use  it  with  increasing,  tho  imperfect,  friend- 
liness.   Once  neither  employers  nor  employed 

204 


BOSWORTH 


could  have  been  safely  trusted  with  the  power 
that  organization  has  given  to  both  parties, 
but  now  the  growing  sense  of  responsibility 
for  the  general  welfare  makes  it  safe  to  give 
larger  power  to  both.  It  seems  probable  that 
vast  industrial  enterprises  conducive  to  hu- 
man welfare  lie  just  ahead  of  us,  which  can 
be  undertaken  only  when  men  have  been 
trained  to  use  power  with  a  friendliness  that 
will  make  it  safe  to  trust  them  with  the  great 
increase  of  power  that  these  enterprises  will 
demand. 

Human  life,  then,  by  its  very  nature,  by 
Jesus'  theory  and  use  of  it,  by  what  it  has 
already  accomplished  through  the  centuries, 
h  seen  to  be  a  situation  devised  by  the  in- 
finite ingenuity  of  God,  in  which  to  train 
sons  for  an  inheritance  of  power  by  teaching 
them  to  use  power  in  a  friendly  spirit. 

It  is  in  the  light  of  this  conception  of  the 
meaning  of  life  that  the  peril  of  living  ap- 
pears. The  danger  is  that  men  will  refuse 
to  learn  the  friendly  use  of  power,  and  there- 
fore be  unable  to  inherit  the  bequests  of  power 
that  would  naturally  await  them.  Such  fail- 
ure means  unspeakable  loss.  He  who  throws 
himself  athwart  the  deep  trend  of  the  long 
evolution  of  life  inevitably  suffers  inde- 
scribable disaster.  It  is  of  him  that  the  most 
ominous  words  of  Jesus  are  spoken.  The 
power  that  he  has  will  be  taken  from  him 
and  be  given  to  him  that  has  shown  himself 

205 


MODERN     SERMONS 


fit  to  be  trusted  with  large  and  growing  grants 
of  power — "Take  away  the  talent  from  him 
and  give  it  to  him  that  hath  ten  talents." 
From  the  farmer  who  refuses  to  sow  his  seed 
the  seed  shall  be  taken  and  given  to  him 
who  has  it  in  abundance  and  is  willing  to 
sow  it,  for  seed  must  be  sown  that  God's 
children  may  have  bread.  "He  will  be  cast 
out  into  the  outer  darkness, ' '  eliminated  from 
Jesus'  civilization  of  friendly  workmen.  Over 
against  these  busy  friendly  workmen,  to  whom, 
as  they  work  together,  God  gives  growing 
grants  of  power,  the  persistently  selfish  man 
putters  away  ever  more  feebly  and  painfully 
in  his  little  lonely  self-made  hell.  The  peril 
is  that  men  will  not  see  the  significance  of 
plain  daily  life,  with  its  commonplace  and 
constantly  recurring  opportunity  to  learn  to 
use  power  in  a  friendly  spirit.  The  men  that 
stood  for  judgment  before  the  Son  of  Man 
cried  out  in  surprized  chagrin,  "When  saw 
we  thee  hungry  and  thirsty?"  They  had 
not  noticed  the  significance  of  daily  life.  It 
is  those  with  the  least  power,  one-talent  peo- 
ple, who  are  in  greatest  danger.  They  are  too 
proud  to  do  the  little  they  can  do  because 
it  will  appear  to  others  to  be  so  little  — 
"Others  can  do  it  so  much  better  than  I." 
Or  the  little  power  they  possess  is  not  suf- 
ficiently impressive  to  overcome  the  wicked 
lethargy  of  their  anemic  good  will — "It  is 
too  much  trouble."     So  they  merit  the  de- 

206 


BOSWORTH 


scriptive  words  of  Jesus,  "wicked  and  sloth- 
ful," proud  and  lazy,  and  pass  out  into  the 
sphere  of  self-wrecked  personalities. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  this  view  of  the 
meaning  of  life  gives  birth  to  a  great  hope. 
The  man  who  has  only  a  little  power,  and 
who  faithfully  uses  it  in  the  friendly  spirit 
of  a  son  of  God,  is  certain  to  inherit  vastly 
increased  power.  He  lives  in  a  generous 
economy  in  which  he  who  is  *' faithful  over 
a  few  things"  will  surely  be  ''set  over  many 
things."  It  is  this  conception  of  the  future 
life  as  one  of  achievement  that  appeals  to  the 
strong  men  of  our  age.  We  do  not  like  to 
think  of  the  future  life  as  one  of  endless 
rest.     We  do  not  care  to  sing: 

There  shall  I  bathe  my  weary  soul 

In  seas  of  endless  rest, 
And  not  a  wave  of  trouble  roll 

Across  my  peaceful  breast. 

Tennyson  rather  has  struck  the  chord  to 
which  our  age  responds,  when  he  says  of  his 
departed  friend: 

And  doubtless  unto  thee  is  given 
A  life  that  bears  immortal  fruit 
In  those  great  offices  that  suit 

The  full-grown  energies  of  heaven. 

The  thought  of  *'the  full-grown  energies  of 
heaven"  and  the  opportunity  for  their  ex- 
ercise that  "heaven"  must  afford,  makes  im- 

207 


MODERN     SERIVTONS 


mortality  seem  worth  while.  The  sons  of 
God  are  to  inherit  a  career.  Men  may  walk 
the  shores  of  the  "silent  sea"  not  shivering 
and  cowering  with  fear  of  death,  but  feeling 
rather  as  Columbus  did  when  he  finally  got 
his  three  ships,  and  sailed  away  expecting  to 
find  opportunity  for  great  achievements  be- 
yond. They  may  walk  the  shore  like  spir- 
itual vikings,  ready  to  start  out  on  a  benefi- 
cent career  of  high  adventure.  They  may 
feel  an  enthusiasm  for  eternity  which  will 

Greet  the  unseen  with  a  cheer! 

But  all  this  future  outlook  is  for  him  who 
has  present  insight  into  the  meaning  of  daily 
life  and  who  puts  himself  under  the  daily 
discipline  of  Jesus.  The  homespun  language 
of  Sam  Foss  expresses  his  deep  desire. 

Let  me  live  in  a  house  by  the  side  of  t'^e  road, 

Where  the  race  of  men  go  by — 
The  men  who  are  good  and  the  men  who  are  bad, 

As  good  and  as  bad  as  I. 
I  would  not  sit  in  a  scorner's  seat, 

Or  hurl  the  cynic's  ban; 
Let  me  live  in  a  house  by  the  side  of  the  road 

And  be  a  friend  to  man. 

Human  life  is  a  situation  devised  by  the 
infinite  ingenuity  of  God,  in  which  to  prepare 
sons  for  an  inheritance  of  power  by  teaching 
them  to  use  power  in  a  friendly  spirit.  "If 
a  son,  then  an  heir." 

END  OF  VOL.  I 


This  booK  is  DUE  on  the  last 
date  stamped  below 


lOm-4,'28 


B     000  004  920     5      ^ 


i;Ki?ii> 


AT 
OS  ANGELKS 


